The digital age is dawning for older bus riders who refuse to dump coins for the MTA’s new fare-payment methods.
With OMNY now in use on 92% of paid bus trips, according to the MTA, the transportation authority is nudging golden-aged holdouts who still drop loose change into fareboxes to switch to the tap-and-go technology before coins are no longer accepted later this year.
“One thing we have been doing is just being vocal,” said Demetrius Crichlow, president of New York City Transit. “We have been out there in every outlet possible, I have personally gone to a lot of senior centers and talked directly about the transition.”
But even after making the case for OMNY in presentations at more than 110 senior centers, as well as libraries, public housing developments, religious institutions and other locations with heavier coin usage on buses, the MTA still faces pockets of resistance among some older riders.
MTA officials announced the discontinuation of coin fares on buses last October, after eliminating hand-to-hand cash transactions at subway station booths in the early days of the pandemic. Cash transactions were permanently banned at the booths in 2021, though OMNY vending machines accept paper bills and change.
Yet coins still have a following on the buses.
Carmen Collazo, 77, said she prefers paying for bus fares by reaching into her sack of loose change instead of loading money onto her reduced-fare OMNY card.
“I feel more comfortable with the coins, but I guess I have to get used to it, go with the times and do what I need to do,” she said. “I have no choice.”
‘I Always Carry Extra Change’
MTA officials Alberto Roldan and Charley Cohen last week visited an East Harlem senior center to promote the tap-and-go payment system. The pair set up shop at a table stocked with lens tissues featuring a map of the subway system and with pamphlets on how riders 65 and older can tap into OMNY via farecards or mobile devices.
When Roldan, the MTA’s assistant director of government and community relations, asked the room of older New Yorkers how many had received reduced-fare OMNY cards, most of the attendees thrust their hands into the air.
“That’s a good start,” he said.
But Roldan was received with a “say what!” and an “oh, wow!” — along with a few groans — after informing the crowd that coins will no longer be accepted as payment on buses “at some point later this year.”
“That’s why I always carry that extra change, just in case I don’t have no money on my OMNY card,” said Coleta Horton, 68. “I don’t want to beat the fare.”
MTA officials have emphasized that unlike MetroCards — whose sales ended at the end of 2025 — OMNY cards can be refilled online, at more than 2,700 retail locations and without having to set foot into a subway station.
“In the OMNY ecosystem, we have retail vendors — that means CVS, Walgreens, delis that we’ve partnered with — where a coin-based customer [or] a cash customer can go into these retailers and do these transactions, upload value into the OMNY cards,” said Quemuel Arroyo, the MTA’s chief accessibility officer. “They can do it from their homes if they have access to a computer.”
Even as the MTA has faced a host of complaints from riders during the yearslong conversion to OMNY, the tap-and-go technology is now used for 99% of paid subway trips, according to the transportation authority.
But on buses — where about half of all passengers dodge the fare, according to MTA data — riders can still nickel-and-dime their way into a trip. (Officials have also said foreign coins and old tokens sometimes get dropped into the farebox.)
Ediberto Sanchez, a laborer from The Bronx, used quarters and nickels to partially pay the fare on a Bx12 bus he boarded on Fordham Road earlier this month.
“I pay what I can with coins, and when I start getting paid for work, then I will refill the card,” he told The City Reporter in Spanish. “Until then, I’ll pay $2 in coins, or whatever I can afford.”
‘You Can’t Do That With OMNY’
One of the chief complaints about OMNY that the MTA has faced is that fare readers on buses and in the subway do not tell riders the remaining balance on a fare card. Trip records are available online, but some OMNY converts said they still carry loose change.
“With the MetroCard, once you paid, you could still see how much you had on your card, but you can’t do that with OMNY,” said Edna DeLoatch, 72. “Then you get tired of lugging around those extra coins.”
Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chair and CEO, said last month that the transit agency is developing software updates to allow riders to more readily access OMNY balances when tapping in for a trip.
Cohen, who serves as senior accessibility officer at the transportation authority, reiterated that goal during his presentation at the East Harlem senior center.
“We know it’s an issue and we’re working to fix it, hopefully, by the end of the year,” he said.
While waiting for a bus along Fordham Road this month, 69-year-old Nydia Santana said she still sometimes pays the fare with loose change, but conceded OMNY has grown on her.
“Once you get used to it, it’s easier,” she said. “Plus, I’m tired of collecting coins.”
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