December 31, 2025

By Chris Bonanos

Photo: Jon Naso/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

You will not see the final swipe this weekend. The MetroCard will continue to work for months to come, till the last batch of cards hits its expiration date. But after December 31, you won’t be able to buy or refill one, and a day or a week or a month later, most of those cards will be tossed, recycled, or stashed in a drawer as bits of memorabilia. Yes, the MetroCard, after 31 years, has reached the end of the line. We got a bright-blue commemorative one as a final-days souvenir, a callback to the card’s appearance when it pushed the brass token into obsolescence, and the reliably excellent New York Transit Museum has put on an exhibition. The MTA definitely squeezed every last drop of value out of the IBM mainframe that ran it. Henceforth, the literally frictionless, touchless OMNY fare system will rule the rails.

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