Interoperability lost: more than half of PATH riders will need to find a new way to pay post-MetroCard

One of the biggest disappointments from the MTA's rollout of its New Fare Payment System OMNY has been MTA's bungling of the regional adoption of its new fare payment system.  While cities on the West Coast, down south, and around the world have been able to consolidate all or most of their region's fare payment processes onto one fare system/farecard, bureaucracy and mismanagement is resulting in the New York's fare payment infrastructure splintering into four distinct, non-interoperable systems (with other smaller operators being left behind).

PATH's current turnstiles currently accept both Smartlink
and MetroCard. With the launch of TAPP, both older fare
systems will no longer be accepted (Photo: The LIRR Today)

While the failure of OMNY to be a regional fare payment system is a big missed opportunity, it's also a step backwards with the region losing a big part of what little interoperability we have with MetroCard today.  PATH—which is the second-largest accepter of MetroCards after NYCT—is parting ways with the MTA over fare payment.  Not only is PATH not joining the OMNY system and instead rolling out a separate new fare payment system called TAPP (which is being built out by the same vendor as MTA's OMNY system, with similar hardware), but PATH will also be dumping MetroCard in the process as the MTA phases out the older fare technology.

The loss of MetroCard will be a big change for PATH riders.  Since the COVID-19 pandemic more than half of PATH trips have been paid for using MetroCards.  According to PATH's Ticket Accepting Turnstiles report (obtained via FOIL), full fare MetroCards accounted for roughly 54% of PATH trips in 2021, 2022, and the first half of 2023 (PATH does not accept reduced-fare MetroCards issued by the MTA at all).  MetroCard-derivative products, including the PATH-only 2-trip MetroCards sold in blue vending machines at most PATH stations and the PATH Single Ride Ticket accounted for another 6% of trips since the pandemic:

It's particularly interesting how the use of MetroCard has overtaken even PATH's own primary fare payment media, Smartlink.  Smartlink products used to account for roughly 60% of PATH trips taken, but in the last few years the tables have turned and it now accounts for only about 40% of trips.

Smartlink has always held an awkward place in the region's fare payment infrastructure.  Despite the PANYNJ's larger goals for Smartlink (with then-PANYNJ Vice Chair Charles Gargango saying at the card's initial launch in 2006 that "[Smartlink] is also an important first step toward the development of a regional fare-payment medium that will greatly improve the commute for those who travel by rail, bus or subway throughout the region.") it has never been accepted outside of the PATH's 13 stations.  Aside from a brief transition period after it launched, Smartlink does not hold stored value, but rather multi-trip or unlimited pass products.  You have to travel on PATH reasonably often (at least 15-30 trips per year) to make buying and carrying around a Smartlink card worthwhile, which a lot of people don't.

This is reinforced by the lack of fare integration or free transfers with connecting service providers.  Because PATH does not offer any sort of free or discounted transfers to/from NYCT, NJTransit rail/light rail/buses, or New York Waterway, its unlimited passes are only valid on PATH trains.  While PATH's unlimited passes are cheaper than NYCT's, they are still quite expensive and the break-even point for a 30-day unlimited pass is more than 42 trips (which means you have to travel more than five days per week).  In NYC, an unlimited pass is usually worth it since you can use the same pass on the buses or subways if you are going someplace else outside of your normal commute.  But in Hudson and Essex, if you want to take a light rail train or a bus, you have to pay a separate fare.

Pre-pandemic, PATH's 1-, 7-, and 30-day unlimited passes accounted for about 22% of trips taken.  Since the pandemic and the rise of remote/hybrid work, that has plummeted to only about 8% of trips.  Both of these figures are considerably lower than what's seen on LIRR, where monthlies accounted for about 54% of trips pre-pandemic and 29% of trips in 2022. Almost all PATH unlimited passes were of the 30-day variety.  7-day unlimited passes account for less than 1% of PATH trips and 1-day unlimited passes account for less than 0.02% of PATH trips.

Change in PATH fare payments used pre- and post-pandemic

After full-fare MetroCards, the next most heavily used fare type is Smartlink's discounted multi-trip products.  These offer the best deal for most PATH riders—presently, you can buy sets of 10, 20, or 40 trips at a discounted fare of $2.60 per trip, a $0.15 savings over the regular fare that you pay with MetroCard and single ride tickets.  These products account for roughly 30% of PATH trips.  PATH allows for loading 1, 2, or 4 trips onto Smartlink cards, but these are at the full $2.75 fare and are used by only about 1% of trips.

PATH's new TAPP equipment is the same hardware as MTA's OMNY
readers, but will not accept MetroCard or Smartlink cards (The LIRR Today)

On the whole, this means that more than half of PATH riders will need to find a new way to pay once MetroCard sunsets.  Most could likely transition to paying with contactless/EMV cards directly at the turnstile, as the new TAPP system is "open loop" similar to OMNY.  But it's not as easy as swapping one for another.  There are a number of ways open loop/contactless is not "just as good" as a unified farecard.  I've hung out around the PATH gatelines at Hoboken and 33rd Street a few times over the last few weeks and quite a number of people at MVM's are still loading MetroCards with cash.  Quite a number of people using MetroCards at the turnstiles are clearly commuters during rush hour, and would probably benefit from the Smartlink multi-trip or unlimited products (but likely don't see the value of carrying around an extra farecard for the sake of saving $0.15 per trip).

You can see this friction too in the number of seniors riding PATH.  PATH offers reduced fares only to seniors (not people with disabilities) and only if you apply for and pay with a Senior Smartlink card.  Not only does PATH not recognize that you are a senior if you pay with your NYCT Senior MetroCard, but they don't even accept reduced-fare MetroCards (you get a "card not accepted" error) and you have to pay with a regular gold MetroCard.  As a result, just 1% of PATH trips are taken utilizing discounted Senior Smartlink cards.  While Hoboken and Jersey City tend to be home to quite a young crowd, I would wager that the number of eligible seniors riding PATH account for more than 1% of the ridership and are just paying twice the fare because it's not worth the hassle to get a senior Smartlink card.  PATH trains are not the fountain of youth—if someone is 70 when riding on the NYC Subway, they don't get 20 years younger when they go to pay their PATH fare.  Making reduced-fare eligible riders apply to multiple transit agencies is a major consequence of a fractured fare payment infrastructure.

Lack of fare parity

The biggest issue that PATH riders will face as the PANYNJ sunsets MetroCard is whether PATH will guarantee fare parity for contactless payments.  They are already off on the wrong foot—if you are paying with a contactless payment method on TAPP, you are charged the full $2.75 fare.  If you take ten trips, you end up paying $27.50, which is 6% more than you would have paid had you bought a 10-trip product on Smartlink.  Will PATH implement fare-capping to rebate people $1.50 for every 10-trips they take, or cap fares at the daily/weekly/monthly pass rate?  Otherwise, the 45% of PATH riders who use these products will either need to resign to paying more, or carry around a second farecard to pay for PATH.  Not a great solution.

Future integration?

The fact that both OMNY and TAPP are being furnished by the same integrator (Cubic) leaves the door open for some sort of backend integration down the line, I wouldn't hold out much hope for it.  In September, the MTA said that they have no plans at this time to implement any sort of interoperability between OMNY and TAPP or NJT's new fare system or Go CT or any other fare system.

Present headache, future obstacle

While the splintering of the region's fare payments systems will cause headaches with having to fumble around with multiple farecards (and/or multiple online accounts if you are paying with contactless), more critically, it presents a major obstacle to future fare integration across different modes and operators.

Presently there are no free transfers between PATH and NYC Subways and Buses, though many argue there should be.  By allowing MTA and PANYNJ to go separate ways on fare payment technology, we have effectively given both agencies a free excuse to avoid implementing free transfers for the next 20-30 years.  Without a common fare payment system, how can the transfers even be calculated?  Even if there is a backend integration made in the future (which I doubt will ever happen, see above), who will take responsibility when there's a glitch and the transfer doesn't register properly?  NYCT will blame PATH, PATH will blame NYCT.  It'll be a customer service nightmare for both the agencies and riders.

I harp a lot on fare payment and the lack of regional integration because it really is the driver of so many pain points across our region's mass transit system, and causes unnecessary friction to attempts to grow ridership.  To many NYC residents, Hoboken and Jersey City may as well be in California instead of just across the river—in big part because not only do they have to pay a second fare to get there, but they have to dig up an old MetroCard or queue up for single ride tickets every trip like it's the old days.