Get ’em while you still can! The MTA is now selling limited edition MetroCards featuring iconic New York content creators through a partnership with social media giant Instagram.
The new cards are the last of their kind as the state agency moves toward using OMNY, a contactless way for riders to pay for buses and trains in NYC.
The 75,000 commemorative cards, available at 12 subway stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, feature content creators who have built their social media presence through unique, city-inspired content.
Among the featured Insta stars are @NewYorkNico, who captures iconic NYC events and establishments on video, including marathon runners crossing the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge from Staten Island, on-the-scene moments (like Grimace working his way through the Javitz Convention Center), and New Yorkers just being New Yorkers throughout the Big Apple.
“As a born and raised New Yorker who has been taking the subway for as long as I can remember, I’m beyond honored to have designed a limited edition MTA MetroCard in collaboration with Instagram,” Nico wrote on his popular page.
View this profile on Instagram
Other Big Apple content bigwigs featured on the final co-branded cards include @subwaytakes, with nearly half a million followers, and @overheardnewyork, a page that boasts an impressive 1.7 million followers.
Where can New Yorkers get the commemorative Instagram MetroCards?
The themed MetroCards are now for sale at the following stations around the city:
- Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer
- Sutphin Blvd–Archer Avenue–JFK Airport
- Court Square–23 Street
- Fordham Road
- Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center
- Bedford Avenue
- 125 Street
- Grand Central–42 Street
- 34 Street–Penn Station
- Delancey Street –Essex Street
- Fulton Street
- 14 Street–Union Square
According to the MTA, there have been more than 400 different limited edition MetroCards, including the Notorious B.I.G., Supreme, David Bowie KISS, The New York Yankees, Lincoln Center, the Bronx Zoo, among dozens of others.
The last co-branded MetroCards
The MTA announced in May that it would end promotional opportunities on MetroCards as it transitions to using OMNY, a tap-to-pay technology.
MetroCards were introduced into the subway system in 1994 to replace tokens, though it took nearly 10 years before token payments were fully phased out in 2003.
Meanwhile, a date for the official retirement of MetroCards, commemorative or not, is still to be determined.
As it currently stands, the MTA is actively continuing the process of fully transitioning from the MetroCard to OMNY, which the agency calls the “easiest, most flexible way to pay.”
OMNY is not yet in all subway stations around NYC, but a list of OMNY vending machines can be found at omny.info.
To use OMNY, subway and local and express bus riders can tap and go with their contactless credit or debit card, smartphone or OMNY card.
