Lauren Rivera 
In May 2024, the Port Authority rolled out a new contactless payment system for PATH trains called TAPP. Short for Total Access PATH Payment, TAPP is an open-loop contactless payment system that allows riders to use their own preferred method of contactless payment instead of a specific PATH-issued SmartLink card or a pay-per-ride MetroCard. While this newer payment system is meant to streamline the process, as riders no longer have to stand in lines waiting to refill their SmartLink or MetroCards, many riders have reported issues like payment errors, card reading failures, and double-charges for rides they didn’t take. Multiple HG readers took to our DMs to share similar problems over the past few days. Read on for what to know about the ongoing tap-and-go issues.
What is Going On?
PATH riders are claiming they are being charged for rides they never took. Just yesterday, June 10th, an HG reader shared via DM that they were charged multiple times using the tap-and-pay system. “Anyone else getting multiple charges from doing tap-and-pay at the PATH today?” they asked. “I did it twice, to the city and back, and now I have five charges.”
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A member of the HG team peeked at their transactions, too, and noticed the same issue. They were charged three times when they should have been charged twice.
TAPP is operated by Cubic Transportation, the same company behind OMNY, which is the contactless fare payment system being used in stations in the NYC region. Multiple reports spanning from May 2025 to now indicate that the same double charge issue is happening to our neighbors across the Hudson.
THE CITY shared in May 2025 the stories of multiple NYC residents dealing with the same problem, including Vanessa Campos, who was charged 18 times over two days while traveling from her home in the Bronx to her job in Manhattan.
The MTA previously attributed what riders saw in their transactions to late-arriving charges. Last month, John McCarthy, MTA Chief of Policy, told THE CITY in a joint call with Jessie Lazarus, the Transit Agency Deputy Chief of Commercial Ventures, “We have not seen anybody overcharged…What we’re seeing is delayed charges, and then they come in a cluster.”
But now, as of June 10th, 2025, MTA officials are citing these issues to a recent software upgrade meant to improve the OMNY (One Metro New York) system as stations transition away from the MetroCard, which is set to be fully retired on December 31st, 2025. (OMNY is the contactless fare payment system behind the TAPP in stations in the NYC region.)
In a statement shared with amNewYork, Jessie Lazarus said, “With deep empathy for the customer experience, we had a hiccup in one of these software upgrades that our vendor performed; we directed them to perform it…We wish that the hiccup did not happen, and we’re doing everything we can to communicate clearly with customers to help smooth the bumps in the road from the last week and a half.”
Also, when calling OMNY’s customer service line, riders are now met with a prerecorded message saying, “Please be advised. If you use a Visa card for tap-and-go payments, you may have seen multiple authorization attempts on your card today. Please know you will be charged only for the correct number of trips.”
MTA told amNewYork the same message from last month: these are not overcharges but late-arriving charges. “We were seeing some delays between when someone taps at the turnstile and when that tap is showing up and deducting value from their account. That could happen in seconds, but it was taking several days,” Jessie Lazarus said. “That was causing some confusion, and the transactions would arrive when the system had more capacity and headroom.”
The agency began alerting customers of the issue the week of May 15th, and according to Jessie Lazarus, the problems were mainly resolved by May 29th. The ongoing issues riders are facing indicate otherwise.
The Hoboken Girl has reached out to the Port Authority and will update this post with any other information.
About TAPP
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On May 22nd, 2024, PATH implemented a new contactless fare payment system, TAPP, which is available at all stations systemwide in New York and New Jersey. Last year, TAPP readers were installed at PATH the 14th Street and 23rd Street stations in Manhattan, and all PATH stations in New Jersey were outfitted in April 2024.
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The Port Authority first introduced the new contactless fare system in December 2023 during a pilot program at the Journal Square and 33rd Street stations.
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