QM1to6Ave

Ahh, interesting

Yeah, and they are still having B/O's collecting coins on their routes lol...the MTA could do all sorts of things with OMNY promotions and so forth

I think the MTA broadly could benefit from more creative collaboration with public events, spaces, etc and have some mutually beneficial cross-promotion...the site gets advertised, and the MTA gets more customers (especially on their more expensive, underused modes of transit). I've seen more efforts at this in the past few years, but there is a lot more room for growth.

Funny enough, I was just talking with someone who lives in west hempstead and she was saying that she purposely takes the long walk to one of the Hempstead stations as her exercise, and when her neighbors pass her while she is walking, they offer her a ride and look at her like she's crazy when she says she wants the long walk LOL. I think she lives on the edge of west hempstead so it isn't such a crazy long walk

Any word on express bus unlimited pass getting programmed into OMNY? At this point, I'm going to probably change jobs and not need it anyway past the fall, so I'll switch to OMNY for PPR after that

I have to say, I really like having the private security guards at Union Tpke station. They really do seem to be preventing farebeating by blocking the emergency exit door, and the sketchy weirdos have mostly disappeared. And they successfully cleared out the homeless lady who had been living on the staircase by the court house stairs for years.

When you say the West Hempstead branch runs like sh*t, do you just mean it has bad headways, or also lots of late/missing trips, etc? Also, thank you to you and@danielhg121, I used City Ticket through the app for Penn-->Forest Hills today. The conductor definitely gave me a second look when I showed the ticket, but then moved on. I knew what to say to him if he gave me a hassle

Thank you both for the quick replies! Much appreciated! Yeah, it threw me off because I juat learned from this group that on the EXP bus, peak hours are in effect regardless of direction (such as for reduced fare cards). Go figure lol

Question--Can I use a City Ticket on an LIRR train from Penn Station to Forest Hills during the morning rush hour (around 9 am)? The MTA site seems to say that peak fares are only charged in the morning going towards NYC, not from NYC to Queens, but it isn't totally clear to me. Can someone confirm that?

Asking for a co-worker who is about to get a Reduced Fair (Senior) Metrocard...for express buses, is the full fare charged during peak hours on all runs, or only those in the peak travel direction? (for example, if traveling from Manhattan-->Queens at 8:30 am on a weekday, is it full fare?). I tried googling but can't find the answer.

I'm sorry you had that happen. That is the lowest sh*t these drivers can pull. I'm glad you reported him, and if you don't get an adequate response, email your local representatives about it.

Ha, yup, I'm convinced the farebox ruins my card in these instances, because there are no scratches or bends on the card. The worst was one time a farebox just ate my card completely and the B/O got pissed at me because he had to open up the top of the box to retrieve the card, as if I caused the janky-a** box to eat my card!

I just had that same damn experience with an Exp farebox killing my brand-new Metrocard, which had a full 7-day Exp bus pass loaded onto it. An S/A once told me that the bus fareboxes, especially if you take exp buses everyday, kills Metrocards. I know OMNY has a lot of gltiches, but I would like to finally try out an OMNY card with an unlimited EXP bus pass on it, if they ever bother to make that option available.

Agree with this 100%

This is a new one...I saw a CP Prevost with the front destination sign saying "CHARGING" (I think the side sign was blank, as was the rear sign) Is this sone secret EV/hybrid mode or something lol?

What's the logic behind that? Let the people who want to pay with OMNY/credit cards use either entrance to cut down on dwell time, and maybe get more people to ride the bus if it's faster

I was pleasantly surprised to see two private security guards at Union Tpke station, near the courthouse entrance which is always a little sketchy, and they finally removed the homeless lady who literally lived on the staircase for years

I'd put money on that job being a BS, cushy job for someone with an uncle or whatever high up in the union

Yup, some of the worst offenders have disappeared from the runs I take, thankfully. Seems like a lot of different faces this pick

Right, but why not just make all routes have all-door boarding to speed things up at this point? If the technology is already in place, it seems silly to not use it.

Any word on when all-door boarding will begin on all routes? It's ridiculous that the MTA paid to have the cubic readers on the back door of every single bus, but they are only used on SBS routes.

Jesus! Interestingly, yesterday on the M15 SBS (not at the stop, on the actual bus), there were 3 Eagle Team members, except instead of checking tickets, each one stood at a door and rode the bus for a few stops. I've seen MTAPD, NYSP, and NYPD TD do that in the past at times, but this was the first time the eagle team was providing some sort of security (or at least that's what it looked like they were doing)

For anyone who takes CP routes regularly, I just heard back from one of my elected officials, to whom I complained about the blocked seat issue. This is what they told me: "I heard back from my contact at the MTA - she spoke with the Depot and they have made announcements and spoken with operators. Please let me know if you continue to see these issues." So, please post on here if you continue to see blocked seats and send in complaints with specific times, routes, etc. I have personally started to see some improvements in this area...

(I missed this post somehow until now) Oh boy, that's ridiculous. I recognize those B/Os, good guys. I've only seen one wheelchair passenger get onto/off of a Prevost, and the B/O didn't really know what he was doing. I think they use the lifts so infrequently that they A- break down and B- the B/Os forget how to use them without regular practice/use

One of my coworkers today was telling me how shocked he was that the AriTrain doesn't accept OMNY or any contactless credit cards, and the lines for the MVMs were so long that the staff just opened the gates for everyone to prevent overcrowding. It seems like it should be relatively simple to apply the Cubic readers to the AirTrain gates, but this is the MTA we are talking about...