MyTix Mobile Ticketing

I wonder if the regular rules for paper tickets apply to the mytix tickets. For example, suppose I have a mytix ticket from Hoboken to Suffern. I get on at Hoboken, then decide that I will get off at Secaucus to get some dinner at Sbarro, then get the next train to Suffern. Is that legal?
Suppose I have a one way ticket to anyplace, say Summit from Hoboken. I get to Summit and then run some errands. Now I get a train back to Hoboken. My original ticket is still not expired, so I use it again.

In these 2 examples, suppose a conductor notices. For instance, maybe the conductor on my train from Summit to Hoboken was on the train to Summit I started on, and realizes I am using the same ticket. If he asks and I tell the truth, do I have to buy another ticket, or am I covered because the ticket has not expired yet?

Whenever you move to a mobile ticketing or PoP ticketeing system, there are occasions when the railroad wins and occasions where they lose. In the instances like the ones Mr. G went through immediately above, NJT loses, but there are also other instances, i.e. short intermediate trips that would not have a conductor come and lift a paper ticket, where the railroad would win. I suppose it all balances out in the end.

JoeG wrote:I wonder if the regular rules for paper tickets apply to the mytix tickets. For example, suppose I have a mytix ticket from Hoboken to Suffern. I get on at Hoboken, then decide that I will get off at Secaucus to get some dinner at Sbarro, then get the next train to Suffern. Is that legal?
Suppose I have a one way ticket to anyplace, say Summit from Hoboken. I get to Summit and then run some errands. Now I get a train back to Hoboken. My original ticket is still not expired, so I use it again.

In these 2 examples, suppose a conductor notices. For instance, maybe the conductor on my train from Summit to Hoboken was on the train to Summit I started on, and realizes I am using the same ticket. If he asks and I tell the truth, do I have to buy another ticket, or am I covered because the ticket has not expired yet?

The company doesn't have separate rules as far as I know. You can't make a stop-over at Secaucus unless you took the wrong train out of Hoboken. Then you can transfer anywhere.
As far as using the same ticket twice goes, I don't know about Mytix, but obviously the company doesn't permit it and the honest thing would be not to.

philipmartin wrote:

JoeG wrote:I wonder if the regular rules for paper tickets apply to the mytix tickets. For example, suppose I have a mytix ticket from Hoboken to Suffern. I get on at Hoboken, then decide that I will get off at Secaucus to get some dinner at Sbarro, then get the next train to Suffern. Is that legal?
Suppose I have a one way ticket to anyplace, say Summit from Hoboken. I get to Summit and then run some errands. Now I get a train back to Hoboken. My original ticket is still not expired, so I use it again.

In these 2 examples, suppose a conductor notices. For instance, maybe the conductor on my train from Summit to Hoboken was on the train to Summit I started on, and realizes I am using the same ticket. If he asks and I tell the truth, do I have to buy another ticket, or am I covered because the ticket has not expired yet?

The company doesn't have separate rules as far as I know. You can't make a stop-over at Secaucus unless you took the wrong train out of Hoboken. Then you can transfer anywhere.
As far as using the same ticket twice goes, I don't know about Mytix, but obviously the company doesn't permit it and the honest thing would be not to.

I can transfer to Hammonton, sweet

Who cares?!?!?!?!?

It's not like your saying hmm I'm not going to pay my taxes this year.

It either works or it doesn't. Worst case scenario you pay an additional what $10.00.

There's a ton of ways to beat the system for instance for 5 years it was cheaper to buy a Round Trip ticket from Tuxedo to a thru station thru Secaucus than it was to go to Glen Rock. I did it plenty of times, was I hauled off to jail NOPE.

I told NJT about it several times they didn't care so I kept doing it. Eventually went away when the ORT went away. Still works today via Hoboken for Ridgewood North ^.

There are others out there but I'm not going to share any others you guys can fool around with the TVM's and find them.

You tell the conductor that you stopped off for a slice of pizza at SEC he sees when you activate or bought the ticket (if it's paper and has today's date on it) and either says okay no problem or says your gonna have to buy a new one. And 9/10 my bet is if he does say you have to buy a new one he's not going to charge you the $5 surcharge.

I used it for the first time yesterday. Works like a charm, especially when I was able to bypass the lines that happen with the amateur hour that Hamilton becomes on weekends. With this app, I'm never going to a TVM again.

The Titan bill board adds for MyTix at my station have the YouTube logo on the bottom. I went to YouTube, put in MyTix, and got 1) information on theatre tickets, and 2) video game information in Polish. I didn't see anything about NJT.

Friday about 6PM I tried to activate a MyTix ticket and the system was down. It was down for at least several hours. Saturday morning I saw it was back. In this case I had time in Hoboken to buy a paper ticket. I am hoping that in this situation the conductor would be reasonable and not charge me the fee for buying a ticket onboard. But, I didn't get to test this.

Joe G: Happened on New Year's Eve as well. Line of 40 or so people at Radburn station waiting for tickets as the train arrived. (Spoke rather loudly and said you can buy tickets on your phone) I hopped on and the system wasn't responding, waved to the 38 or so idiots still standing there waiting to buy tickets. Showed the conductor my phone said okay no problem pay when you get to Secaucus, and that is exactly what I and 3 or 4 others did. No venture gained without taking the chance. Win some you lose some. Shame on NJT for not having the system working but who cares. Bought 2 my-tix tickets in the cab on the way home at 3:00am without a problem.

Happened again yesterday morning. This time the outage was only 20 minutes or so, and my ticket got activated before the conductor came around to collect.
My fear is that as MyTix gets more heavily used NJT will not invest in the necessary infrastructure to make it robust.

Why require an Internet connection to activate an already purchased ticket?

The MBTA App doesn't require an connection to activate a ticket. Then again tickets are tied to a specific device ID & not specifically a user account. Getting purchased & inactivated fares to a new device requires human intervention.

nomis wrote:Why require an Internet connection to activate an already purchased ticket?

They appear to be trying for a POP-fare-like experience: you can buy a number of tickets, keep them in an electronic wallet, then activate them when you want to use them. To activate requires an Internet connection, but after that you don't need a connection.

They have to keep the unused tickets on the server. Otherwise if your phone died or got lost you would lose all your tickets.

I suppose passengers have to choose one of the "two evils." In Boston's sense, tickets are tied directly to the device and if you want to get your tickets from your old phone which is sitting at the bottom of Passaic Lake, well, you're going to have a bit of trouble.

NJTransit allows you to easily recover those tickets, but if you wanted to activate them while you're at the bottom of the Hudson River (in a train, of course), you're going to have a bit of trouble.

I suppose you could work to find a hybrid of the two, but at that point you run the risk of having some fares fall through the gap.

Seems to me the way Kindle does it would work alright (syncing when connected to the internet). Though there are ways that that allows you to get around certain restrictions (eg. if someone lends me a book that I'm too slow to read, I can keep my tablet offline while running the Kindle app to make sure that I get to finish it).