Amtrak41

How will one get their Contactless Debit card to work for senior fare ?

Will there be a fee for such a physical card, and will they all be reloadable, or some not or tourists ?

I guess that is the end of this thread ?

Any reports on the various Queens TA and Bus Company buses, or is that a topic for another thread ?

I think MTA should have come out with a OMNY card first, not last, since so many banks in the US are dragging their feet and not distributing Contactless cards, debit or credit.

When are the various Queens TA and Bus Company buses getting it ?

Has anyone tried the LIRR yet between Penn Station and Jamaica with only a Metrocard ? Were the LIRR conductors informed ?

Wikipedia says Prepaid OMNY car in Feb 2021 and OMNY vending machines in March 2022.

When will they start doing Queens local buses, both TA and BC ? For inter-modal passengers, OMNY is not of much use at this point.

Newark City Subway when using PCC cars into the NJT era ran in the black with P.A.Y.E. like a bus. With less frequent LRV's and POP, farebox recovery became 30%, and it was not from addition of the the lesser used Broad Street branch. It makes sense on SIR where there is no fare collection at all, except for the 2 northern most stations. But to add roving fare inspectors, hopefully with sidearms, on the subway merely to catch the minority of passengers who jump turnstiles, would never be cost-effective.

They really snubbed the former BMT Eastern and Southern Divisions in Brooklyn and Queens, though they did the IRT and IND to Euclid. Red haired stepchildren Crosstown, recaptured BMT Culver, Lefferts, and the Rockaway operation also left to last.

Thus far they have essentially skipped over almost all the ex-BMT, except for Manhattan.

Why does the Bronx take precedence over Queens and Brooklyn ?

If poor enough to be unbanked, they may also be too poor to have a Smartphone and pay for Data. I have plenty of senior relatives who love their Jitterbug dumb phone, and if given a Smartphone, wouldn't know how to use its features, and will never got on-line with it.

An OMNY-only card does make sense for those who don't have a bank account, nor a credit card, or simply don't want to the risk of flashing their debit or credit card around in public. MTA cannot require you to have a bank account or smartphone to use the system.