OMNY

Bryant Park has one at the 40th Street end.

As of Oct. 10, 2023 the JFK AirTrain will accept contactless cards and OMNY.

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/ahead- ... ments-omny

"New Fare Payment System Will Accept Contactless Debit/Credit Cards, Digital Wallets and OMNY Cards

AirTrain Remains Free for Travel Between Terminals

Governor Kathy Hochul, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today announced that AirTrain JFK will begin accepting fare payments using the MTA’s OMNY “Tap and Go” contactless payment readers starting Tuesday, October 10th. OMNY will be available at select gates in both the Jamaica and Howard Beach stations, where an $8.25 one-way fare is required to enter or exit the system, and the AirTrain remains free for travel between airport terminals.

“We are making it easier than ever for travelers to take the train to JFK, and for visitors to our great city to use one of its most essential services – the MTA,” Governor Hochul said. “As we continue to rollout OMNY throughout the system, I encourage everyone to take advantage of this service and travel safely.”

The new fare payment system will accept contactless debit/credit cards, digital wallets and OMNY cards. Fare gates that accept MetroCards will remain available and an option for customers. The initial installation of OMNY at the Jamaica and Howard Beach stations represents the first phase of the integration process. The number of OMNY-equipped gates will steadily increase over the next 15 months. By the end of 2024, the OMNY “Tap and Go” contactless readers will be fully integrated into all fare gates......"

It is a very long article, to see all of it go to the link above.

I was headed downtown this morning and decided to take the D at the Fordham Rd/Concourse station. I, of course, knew the OVMs were there but was surprised that the machines were actually live and online. To check it out I decided to add 2 fares ($5.80) to my OMNY card (which I keep as back-up in case my Reduced fare Senior MetroCard fails - which it has done a few times).

The screens were basically easy to follow and I added the amount to my OMNY card without any problem.
(Since I had registered this card when I purchased it I got an email telling me the card is now active).

I did not have time to 'Play around" with the various screens/selections. I may try that later this week.

One thing I did notice is that if you choose to buy an OMNY card, all that is mentioned is that you have to put a minimum of $1 on it. There is no mention of a $5 cost for the card. Does this mean the OMNY Card will be free, or they will hit you with the news when you go to pay? I will check this out next time.

There are news articles that state that the machines are in 6 stations: 86th Street and Lexington Avenue (Manhattan – 4, 5, 6 trains), Bowling Green (Manhattan – 4 and 5 trains), Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center (Brooklyn – 2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, N, Q, R trains), Junction Boulevard (Queens – 7 train), Fordham Road (the Bronx – 4 train), Fordham Road (the Bronx – B and D trains). For whatever reason there is no mention of the one at 42nd St/Bryant Park in the 40th St/6th Av entrance (maybe this one is just in place until they see how the other ones work out).

Allan wrote: ↑Tue Oct 31, 2023 10:55 am One thing I did notice is that if you choose to buy an OMNY card, all that is mentioned is that you have to put a minimum of $1 on it. There is no mention of a $5 cost for the card. Does this mean the OMNY Card will be free, or they will hit you with the news when you go to pay?

https://new.mta.info/article/introducin ... g-machines

As a limited-time introductory offer, you can buy a new reloadable card for $1

Thanks for the link.

I wonder how much use/purchases they will get at either FordhamRd station. When I was at the Concourse line station, people just walked by the OMNY machines (and didn't even give them a second glance) to the MVMs at the opposite side of the unpaid area.

I would have chosen stations in the Bronx like Parkchester on the 6 and Gun Hill Rd on the 2 for the pilot.

https://www.thelirrtoday.com/2024/05/li ... -omny.html

This is a portion of the article:

"MONDAY, MAY 20, 2024
LIRR, Metro-North to abandon OMNY, grant no-bid contracts to upgrade existing systems
As the MTA's New Fare Payment System OMNY continues to struggle, with the implementation running years behind schedule, the MTA is putting a trio of resolutions before the MTA Board this week to abandon plans to expand OMNY to the LIRR and Metro-North, and instead grant no-bid contracts to Scheidt & Bachmann and Masabi to continue and upgrade the current legacy ticketing systems. This is the first update the MTA has provided on the status of the OMNY program in over a year, since they announced that they would be transitioning the program to MTA C&D management and would be "rebaslining" the schedule (which means the project was so far behind schedule, the only path forward was to throw the old schedule out and come up with a new one). With this new schedule showing the expansion of OMNY to the LIRR and Metro-North would not happen until 2027 at the earliest and at nearly twice the cost, the railroads are jumping ship.

These rather abrupt changes are a major setback to hopes for a better-coordinated regional fare payment system, and will make it more difficult for the LIRR and Metro-North to move away from its archaic ticket collection practices that drive up operating costs significantly.

The MTA branded its New Far Payment System as "OMNY" in 2019, which stands for "One Metro New York". The original intent behind the system scope and the name was that OMNY would become the One fare payment system for mass transit travel across all of Metro New York. But constant delays, mismanagement, and insularity on the part of the MTA has led OMNY to fail spectacularly on this front, with the region's fare payment infrastructure splintering into four distinct and incompatible fare payment systems, with many of the region's smaller operators left out altogether.

Now, not only is OMNY not going to be the One system for all transit services in Metro New York, it won't even be the One system for all of the MTA's services...

Instead, the MTA is seeking approval to grant no-bid contracts to existing vendors to continue and upgrade the existing ticketing systems used on the railroad. The MTA wants to grant Scheidt & Bachmann a no-bid contract valued at up to $134 million to replace the existing Ticket Vending Machines (TVM) and Ticket Office Machines (TOM) for both railroads, and another no-bid contract to Masabi valued at up to $97 million to continue and upgrade the current mobile ticketing system used by both railroads. In exchange, the MTA will take a $36 million credit from Cubic for the descoping of the railroad expansion—so at least at the moment, this move will cost MTA and New York taxpayers nearly $200 million in additional capital and operating costs.

With the railroads off the plate, MTA C&D says they will focus on completing the OMNY rollout on New York City Transit Subways and Buses, where they have struggled to add functionality over the last few years. MTA says "the ultimate goal is to ensure all NYCT customers and ridership classes are able to transition from MetroCard to OMNY by the end of 2024." In 2025, MTA expects to deploy an OMNY mobile application, rollout an OMNY virtual card (which the MTA previously abandoned but is now back in the mix), rollout of OMNY employee passes, and the expansion of OMNY to NICE Bus and Bee-Line in Westchester County, completing the implementation of OMNY on AirTrain JFK, with substantial completion for Subway and Bus scope expected in December 2025.

The MTA says that the OMNY back office systems are designed to be scalable to accommodate the railroads in the future, eventually allowing for transaction information to be consolidated onto one central back-office clearing house. But like other theories about implementing backend integrations between OMNY and other fare payment systems like NJT, Go CT, or TAPP, this will require a lot of complex work and I'll believe it when I see it."

[The article is much longer and has graphs and other illustrations - although I will put a portion of paragraph of which I agree why OMNY is a failure]

.......

"The MTA was the first agency to go whole-hog into adopting contactless payments first, instead of going with the tried-and-true method of implementing the closed-loop farecard and getting the new functionality down first, and then adding contactless features later. This has not only been the root cause of many of the problems facing the OMNY rollout on NYCT, but has made expanding it to other agencies—and, in particular, the railroads—where the fare structure is more complicated a lot more difficult. Years into the program, OMNY can still only support six different fare types, all of which are flat fares. ........

And again I say: They should have just stuck with tokens......

Sometimes simpler is better and less is more.

Here is an example of how the people in OMNY can't even get their facts straight. They have placed an ad containing information which contradicts the information on their website and in ads in the subway cars.

Below is what I sent to their "Contact Us" option.

"This is a comment about the lack of continuity regarding OMNY advertising, specifically as it relates to the weekly fare cap.

On the website and on ads in the subway cars it states that "The seven-day period begins whenever you make your first tap of the week" (the wording on the subway car adds is slightly different but still indicates that the 7 day period can start on any day).

HOWVEVER, in today's (7/3-7/7, 2024) edition of am NewYorkMetro there is a full page ad on page 13 entitled "Earn Free Rides" that states specifically "Tap same card or device for 12 fares in a week, starting Monday and every ride is free through Sunday........."

By specifying exact days, the ad in the newspaper contradicts the language used on the OMNY website and the ads in the subway cars. That can be confusing to some as to which is correct.

Whoever is responsible on OMNY's side for placing ads in the print media should pay closer attention to the actual rules of the program so that the correct information is presented to the riding public."

------------

We will see what kind of answer I get from them.

This is the response I got from OMNY regarding what I sent them above:

"Hi ,

Thank you for contacting OMNY and for bringing this to our attention. We appreciate your comments, and we will certainly take your feedback into consideration as we look to update and improve our systems going forward.

If you have any other questions, comments or suggestions please feel free to call us at 877-789-6669.

OMNY Customer Support"

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It will be interesting to see if OMNY takes another full page ad in amNYMetro and if it will be different than the one I wrote them about. I will also be looking at the "Weekly Cap" page on the OMNY site to see if they try any funny business by changing the current terminology.

Allan wrote: ↑Mon Jul 08, 2024 12:35 pm This is the response I got from OMNY regarding what I sent them above:

"Hi ,

Thank you for contacting OMNY and for bringing this to our attention. We appreciate your comments, and we will certainly take your feedback into consideration as we look to update and improve our systems going forward.

If you have any other questions, comments or suggestions please feel free to call us at 877-789-6669.

OMNY Customer Support"

-----------------------------------------------------------
It will be interesting to see if OMNY takes another full page ad in amNYMetro and if it will be different than the one I wrote them about. I will also be looking at the "Weekly Cap" page on the OMNY site to see if they try any funny business by changing the current terminology.

Yeah, that's an autoresponder. Actions say louder than words, but the risk of a lawsuit is high.

Allan wrote: ↑Wed Jul 03, 2024 1:25 pm HOWVEVER, in today's (7/3-7/7, 2024) edition of am NewYorkMetro there is a full page ad on page 13 entitled "Earn Free Rides" that states specifically "Tap same card or device for 12 fares in a week, starting Monday and every ride is free through Sunday........."

By specifying exact days, the ad in the newspaper contradicts the language used on the OMNY website and the ads in the subway cars. That can be confusing to some as to which is correct.

This feels like grasping at straws.

Does the ad contradict the website, or does it simply provide a specific example of how the fare cap works?

lensovet wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2024 11:49 pm

Allan wrote: ↑Wed Jul 03, 2024 1:25 pm HOWVEVER, in today's (7/3-7/7, 2024) edition of am NewYorkMetro there is a full page ad on page 13 entitled "Earn Free Rides" that states specifically "Tap same card or device for 12 fares in a week, starting Monday and every ride is free through Sunday........."

By specifying exact days, the ad in the newspaper contradicts the language used on the OMNY website and the ads in the subway cars. That can be confusing to some as to which is correct.

This feels like grasping at straws.

Does the ad contradict the website, or does it simply provide a specific example of how the fare cap works?

I was expecting that comment.


As I said when you specify on the website and in-car posters that the 7 day period can start on any day, you don't put a ad in the media stating a particular 7 days (Monday to Sunday in that case) unless you also mention another example such as Tuesday to Monday. Otherwise you are engaging in misleading advertising.

Monday to Sunday was the original 7 day period when the program was first introduced. My feeling is that someone goofed when the ad was placed and put in an older copy.

Or maybe they have data showing that Monday through Sunday is the most common period.

There's lots of problems with this program (like the fact that after half a decade it still doesn't support reduced fares or doesn't have the same level of universal acceptance that Metrocard continues to have to this day), but this is pretty far down on my list personally.

lensovet wrote: ↑Wed Jul 17, 2024 7:54 pm Or maybe they have data showing that Monday through Sunday is the most common period.

There's lots of problems with this program (like the fact that after half a decade it still doesn't support reduced fares or doesn't have the same level of universal acceptance that MetroCard continues to have to this day), but this is pretty far down on my list personally.

Perhaps they do but visitors to NYC (and there are loads of them these days) don't visit on a Monday to Sunday basis.

The MetroCard was not accepted easily at first. When the MetroCard was introduced in 1994 lots of people stayed with the tokens, particularly since it took until 1997 for all the subway turnstiles to be converted to accept the card. The MVMs were also slow to be installed, it took until 1999 for all the subway stations to have them. Also on July 4, 1997, MetroCard Gold was introduced which allowed for a free transfer between bus & subway. That is when the card really got accepted. Of course there were many die-hard token users around which why it took until 2003 for the token to be retired.

You are right that the OMNY program has lots of problems (just follow the conversations on Reddit - just google 'OMNY Reddit' and select the first result). Those who participate there don't hold back when it comes to telling about the problems they encounter.

It will get worse way before it will get better. Case in point - at 34/Penn Station, the MTA has removed nearly every MVM/MEM and put OMNY Vending Machines (OVMs) in their place. The lines on the few MVMs that are still there are l-o-n-g. Some of the OVMs are in need of servicing (messages such as "No Cards" "Coins only" 'No reloads" Reloads only" can be seen). Similar situations can be seen at 42/Grand Central.

One issue I am particularly concerned about is that they are very slow in sending out Reduced Fare OMNY cards. As time goes forward and they replace the MVMs it will get very difficult for Seniors (such as myself) to refill the RF MetroCard. I, for one, am not going to use my debit card at the turnstile. My bank statement is long enough with all the purchases I make being listed, and I would rather control (when possible) just how any system sees my data.

My own feeling is that once all the stations get OVMs the use of the OMNY card will increase and direct use of Credit/Debit cards and Smart Devices will decrease accordingly as people will want to get better control of their cards usage.

Allan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 18, 2024 1:50 pm The MetroCard was not accepted easily at first. When the MetroCard was introduced in 1994 lots of people stayed with the tokens, particularly since it took until 1997 for all the subway turnstiles to be converted to accept the card. The MVMs were also slow to be installed, it took until 1999 for all the subway stations to have them. Also on July 4, 1997, MetroCard Gold was introduced which allowed for a free transfer between bus & subway. That is when the card really got accepted. Of course there were many die-hard token users around which why it took until 2003 for the token to be retired.

The first MVMs were actually introduced on a trial basis on Monday, January 25, 1999 at Columbus Circle and 68th Street-Hunter College. The single ride card made its debut at this time, along with the one-day pass.
January 1999 press release

One year after the the Gold card launch, weekly and monthly passes followed on July 4, 1998. For the first time,
NYCT offered unlimited commuter pass options for buses and subway.