MTA to stop selling MetroCards by the end of the year
NEW YORK (PIX11) — Get ready for the final swipe, MetroCards have a new official end date, according to MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber.
Lieber announced the transit agency will stop selling MetroCards by the of the year during a Power Breakfast event hosted by Crains New York on Wednesday morning.
More Local News
The new timeline for the MetroCard's retirement comes after the MTA previously planned to replace the swipe system by 2023, according to a previous press release.
'[The] MetroCard will continue to be available until all comparable services are offered with OMNY,' an MTA representative previously told PIX11 by email.
More Transit News
The MTA launched the Fair Fares pilot program for the tap-and-go system last May followed by student OMNY cards last September and reduced-fare OMNY cards in December.
According to Lieber, MetroCards will still continue to work to swipe riders into the system until at least 2027.
MetroCards replaced tokens to get into the transit system 30 years ago. Its new successor, the OMNY system was announced 25 years later in 2019.
As of July 25, more than half of New York City's transit riders use OMNY to enter the system.
Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


E&E News
4 days ago
- E&E News
Cuomo's bridge lights hit the auction block
ALBANY, New York — The saga of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's bridge-lighting boondoggle is finally drawing to a close — and from a financial perspective, the end is shaping up to be dim. Cuomo, who's now running for New York City mayor, first signaled in 2016 that he would spend hundreds of millions of dollars to decorate the city's bridges in flashing lights as a way to boost tourism. A year later, subway delays plagued the city in what came to be known as the 'Summer of Hell,' prompting critics to question the wisdom of forcing the financially stressed Metropolitan Transportation Authority to spend an estimated $250 million on a decorative lighting project. Cuomo, though, did not give up on his 'Harbor of Lights' vision. All told, the state and the New York Power Authority spent at least $108 million on bringing it to life — all to no avail. Advertisement Now, years later, the power authority is finally auctioning off the lights after POLITICO inquired about their fate.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Amtrak ready to close NYC tunnel despite fears of possible delays, chaos from Hochul, MTA
Amtrak is moving full speed ahead with tunnel closures in the city on Friday — despite pleas from Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams who fear the three-year project could cause transit chaos. Amtrak leadership had a 'productive' meeting with Hochul and leaders of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Thursday, but Amtrak will still close one of two westbound train tracks in the East River Tunnel, according to Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams. 'Amtrak reassured the Governor and MTA of our commitment to minimizing impacts to passengers throughout the project,' Abrams said. The transit giant's much-maligned plan earned the ire of Long Islanders and top city and state officials over worries the closure could affect MTA trains from Queens into Penn Station. Any unforeseen construction problems may mean all access in the tunnel has to be closed off, potentially disrupting train traffic on a major regional scale, critics have argued. But Amtrak said to try to avoid delays it will provide around-the-clock engineering coverage during the outage, conduct more frequent inspections of the remaining westbound track — and strategically position rescue equipment so delays can be swiftly resolved. Hochul said Amtrak also agreed to allow third-party consultants to examine the project to determine if the second tunnel needs to be fully closed when that construction begins in the fall of 2026 and runs for 13 months. The construction on the first tunnel starting Friday will also take about 13 months, Amtrak engineers said. Hochul asked Amtrak to suspend dynamic pricing on affected train trips during the shutdown. Abrams said Amtrak is assessing the feasibility with the New York State Department of Transportation. Mayor Eric Adams jumped into the tunnel tug-of-war May 6, sending a fiery letter to US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy — blasting Amtrak's East River shutdown plan and demanding feds step in before commuters are left stranded and steaming. City Hall sources said Adams has been going back and forth with the White House on the shutdown, even having Randy Maestro, the first deputy mayor, make the admin's case. But ultimately, the mayor's office is letting Hochul lead the discussion. 'Top administration officials have had numerous conversations with Amtrak and the White House on this issue, and negotiations are still ongoing with the White House,' a City Hall rep said in a statement. The MTA's Long Island Railroad service uses the East River Tunnel for hundreds of trains each day. LIRR President Rob Free has tried to distance the MTA from the closure plan, calling it 'Amtrak's operation' last week — even though the MTA green-lit Amtrak's plan to close the tunnels back in October 2023. Amtrak has maintained that the full closure of the tunnels is necessary because of the extent of damages since it was walloped by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. 'Amtrak is committed to delivering for today's riders while making the long-overdue investments needed to protect service for future generations,' Abrams said.


New York Post
6 days ago
- New York Post
Soaking the rich — as Mamdani and other lefties want —won't pay for a supersized NYC gov't
Mayoral candidate and Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani vaulted into contention in this month's Democratic primary by pledging to supersize city government. 'He knows exactly how to pay for it, too,' his campaign brags. Does he, though? Mamdani's platform — free child care, more public housing and an end to bus fares or CUNY tuition, just to name a few — wouldn't come cheap. Advertisement New Yorkers can have all of it, he promises, for the bargain-basement price of $10 billion in new revenues — less than a tenth of the current city budget. Mamdani is very much lowballing his agenda's price tag. Yet even if he weren't, he still wouldn't likely be able to deliver. Advertisement Most of his plans rely on a pair of tax hikes on corporations and millionaire earners, totaling $9 billion. He doesn't have authority to implement either. Should his cocktail of social-media savvy and socialism land him in Gracie Mansion, he'd need Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers to OK these 'revenue raisers.' New York's local governments, the city included, can't set their own personal or business income-tax rates. Between the city's 1975 brush with insolvency, and its more recent fiscal profligacy, that's understandable. Here's another good reason: Candidates sometimes don't understand themselves how taxes work — and Mamdani is clearly one of them. Advertisement Mamdani regularly compares the top state corporate tax rates of New York (7.25%) and New Jersey (11.5%). These are essentially the state tax rates on businesses profits related to their activity in a state. Mamdani says he'd 'match' New Jersey's rate. On the one hand, that would be a windfall—for Albany, which collects the state corporate tax, not for New York City, where most is generated. Yet Mamdani doesn't get that New York City's biggest firms already pay far more than they would on the other side of the Hudson. Before anyone cuts a check to Albany, city businesses pay the Business Corporation Tax, at least 6.5% for small businesses and as much as 9%. On their remaining income, companies pay the state Corporation Franchise Tax, plus a surcharge to support the MTA. Advertisement All-in, the top state-local rate for businesses in the city is generally just over 17.4%. For them, 'matching' New Jersey would be a meaty tax cut. But say Albany implemented Mamdani's $5 billion hike (after all, lawmakers pushed unsuccessfully for a smaller corporate tax increase this year). That would push the top combined corporate tax rate to a stratospheric 22%. Nor would the proceeds flow automatically to the five boroughs. It would still be 'Albany's' money. Mamdani would need to persuade lawmakers and the governor to spend the proceeds his way. He may find his friends in Albany aren't so friendly when money's involved. Compare that to North Carolina, which is phasing out its corporate tax. It's no coincidence that state has been scooping up new corporate headquarters. Or Pennsylvania, which is in the process of reducing its top corporate rate from 10% percent in 2022, to 8% this year, toward the goal of 5% in 2031. Soak-the-rich rhetoric aside, even Albany can't ignore the explosion of remote work and the danger of pushing major employers to shift operations or direct expansions elsewhere. Advertisement This isn't the only facet of tax policy Mamdani doesn't get. His other big tax increase would have city residents with incomes over $1 million pay the city an extra 2% of their earnings (on top of their Medicare, Social Security, paid family leave and state and federal income taxes). A growing body of data show people with high incomes and residences in other states limit their time in New York to reduce their exposure to the bigger bite taken by state taxes. Here's yet another wrinkle: New York taxes people on their activity in the state, even if they don't live here. By contrast, since 1999, the city levies an income tax only on its residents — and, as with the business taxes, only with Albany's blessing. Advertisement Plenty of people tolerate this extra tax, which tops out at just under 3.9%. But a two-point jump would measurably affect behavior. A couple making $1 million would avoid about $53,000 in city taxes by moving to Westchester or Nassau — up considerably from the $35,000 they would save now. That's effectively an $18,000 bonus for every millionaire earner who decamps for the 'burbs. Advertisement If Mamdani prevails, his followers will abruptly encounter fiscal realities they are ill-equipped to manage — mainly because they've been told to ignore them. Ken Girardin is a fellow of the Manhattan Institute.