The number of passengers using the Omny contactless payment service to pay for journeys on the New York City subway has risen by 168% since August 2019 and by 50% since May this year, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) reports.

In all, the service has recorded more than 16m taps since its launch in May 2019.

The MTA has also continued to introduce the service across the entire subway network and there are now 310 stations equipped with Omny contactless readers, just under two-thirds of the 472 total.

Installation has been completed on lines four and five, while all but one station on lines two and three have been equipped with the readers.

The Omny infrastructure rollout resumed in June after it was suspended for six weeks because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We’ve maintained laser focus on this project the day we launched the public pilot at the end of last May,” says Al Putre, the MTA’s Omny programme executive.

“Not even a pandemic can stop the Omny express rollout. I’m eager to continue at maximum speed and complete the final third of the game-changing new fare payment system by the end of the year.”

The rollout of the service to all MTA bus services is also scheduled for completion by the end of 2020 and the authority will also add support for all its fare options early next year.

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