NEW YORK (WABC) -- The MTA has announced its service schedules for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. On New Year's Eve, the MTA is adding extra subway and commuter rail service -- but on New Year's Day, most MTA agencies will operate on weekend or holiday schedules.

Beginning in 2026, New York City subways will transition away from MetroCards to OMNY cards. Here's how it will work.

The New York City transit system is retiring the MetroCard after more than 30 years. The gold-and-blue swipeable card was introduced in 1994 to replace the subway token, which had been used for half a century.

MetroCards will still be accepted into 2026, with an exact end date to be announced at some point next year, officials said.

The MetroCard, New York City’s finicky transit fare payment system, died on Thursday after years on life support. It was 34. The MetroCard’s parent, the MTA, spent eight years slowly killing it, with the ultimate goal of replacing it with a new system called OMNY, short for “One Metro New York.”

The MetroCard — a blue-and-yellow pass that for more than three decades let riders into New York’s vast subway network with a swipe — will be retired on Wednesday, replaced by the already popular tap-and-go payment system.

NYC subways are evolving from traditional turnstiles to new modern fare gates featuring taller, paddle-style doors with sensors and AI to combat turnstile jumping, improve accessibility for strollers/wheelchairs, and speed up entry, though the pilot program has its flaws.

The most punctual train overall this year was the L, arriving on-time roughly 90.3% of the time in 2025, the data show, followed by the 7 (89.8%), 6 (89.6%) and 1 (89%) lines. Save for the 42nd Street and Franklin Avenue shuttle trains, the L was the only train this year to crack above 90% arrival rates.

Dec. 31 will be the last day that anyone can buy or refill a MetroCard in New York City as transit authorities are working to discontinue the cards and modernize the system, per CNN. The transit system will be switching entirely over to OMNY, a contactless payment system.

When the MetroCard replaced the New York City subway token in 1994, the swipeable plastic card infused much-needed modernity into one of the world's oldest and largest

A new year brings a bevy of new possibilities and challenges for one of the world’s largest public transportation systems. Among the major stories likely to drive the news in 2026 are a new mayor who has pledged to make city buses faster and free to ride;