OMNY Implementation/Metro-Card Retirement Discussion Thread

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 hour ago, QM1to6Ave said:

If that fare capping tweet were to be confirmed, I’d buy it an a heartbeat. I’m just as disappointed as you with using a credit card directly to ta--. I used it all of two times, and they put on an extra recovery charge that I had to dispute. Pathetic. 

It's annoying. Today I called the, because they suspended one of my contactless cards because what happened was, the issuer actually refunded me for the charges because they had so many recovery charges that my card issuer thought there was some fraud going on, so they didn't even ask me. They just refunded me and blocked the charges. lol Then OMNY blocked my card because they obviously didn't get all of the money for the trips I took, so I tried to pay the difference, which was like $13.50, but it wouldn't let me with that card, so I took another contactless card and paid it and they STILL have the card suspended, even though I owe nothing on it, so now they had to "escalate" my issue to see if they can do anything. Once I heard that I said, this is it. I'm going to see if I can buy this OMNY card today.

[RestrictOnTheHanger]

Has anyone turned on the autoreload function for the OMNY card? If so how long does it take for it to kick in? Mine still shows as reload in progress a few hours after it was activated with only 5 bucks on the card. 

[BreeddekalbL]

How far away are we away from omny vending machines?

[RestrictOnTheHanger]

3 hours ago, BreeddekalbL said:

How far away are we away from omny vending machines?

Supposedly the first few will come later this year to Penn, Grand Central, and Woodside

[Via Garibaldi 8]

10 hours ago, RestrictOnTheHanger said:

Has anyone turned on the autoreload function for the OMNY card? If so how long does it take for it to kick in? Mine still shows as reload in progress a few hours after it was activated with only 5 bucks on the card. 

No, and why bother with it when you can reload online in under a minute? You can just have a few cards linked to your OMNY card that you use to load money when you need it. Used it today to take the express bus and run some errands. Worked perfectly.

[RestrictOnTheHanger]

On 10/23/2021 at 1:18 AM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

No, and why bother with it when you can reload online in under a minute? You can just have a few cards linked to your OMNY card that you use to load money when you need it. Used it today to take the express bus and run some errands. Worked perfectly.

Honestly I just like the convenience of autoload like how easypay does it, especially since the balance thresholds are lower. Also I don't always know what my route is in advance (subway or express bus) and they send an email with each manual reload. 

I would not bother with the card at all but my pretax benefit provider doesn't offer contactless and they screwed up adding the card to mobile wallet, but they at least dont block OMNY online reloads anymore. 

[bobtehpanda]

The mobile wallet OMNY is not out yet, right?

[Via Garibaldi 8]

6 hours ago, RestrictOnTheHanger said:

Honestly I just like the convenience of autoload like how easypay does it, especially since the balance thresholds are lower. Also I don't always know what my route is in advance (subway or express bus) and they send an email with each manual reload. 

I would not bother with the card at all but my pretax benefit provider doesn't offer contactless and they screwed up adding the card to mobile wallet, but they at least dont block OMNY online reloads anymore. 

I see. Yeah, I pretty much do what I do when I buy e-tickets for Metro-North. Just buy them the day of. With this OMNY card, I just load some trips on there and it works very well. It may actually save me money, as I may opt to hop on a bus and not Uber. Surge pricing was going on today, so instead of getting an Uber for $30.00, took the local bus for five minutes to the express bus home.

44 minutes ago, bobtehpanda said:

The mobile wallet OMNY is not out yet, right?

Not yet. My personal experience is that it's much better to just have a card. I'm contemplating getting another cell phone, but my Android works everywhere else for contactless payments, except for with OMNY, or either it works perfectly, or not at all. A number of other people have noted this in my group, be it Android or iPhone. I have Android and Apple devices, so I know it's not my devices.

Edited October 24, 2021 by Via Garibaldi 8

[RestrictOnTheHanger]

8 hours ago, bobtehpanda said:

The mobile wallet OMNY is not out yet, right?

No, but if the functionality is anything like DC (SmarTrip) or Chicago (Ventra) , the OMNY app may need to be released first. Those cards require an app to get a new virtual card or convert a plastic one to virtual.

No real advantage of one at this point: there's no exclusive OMNY-card-only passes like in Chicago, and tourists here can use open payments. DC only has a physical or virtual card, no open payment, and the online loads are delayed and only available at certain stops unlike OMNY

 

 

[rbrome]

Can we pin this thread? OMNY is kind of a major topic, and will continue to be for a while...

[7-express]

The first on-record comments from the MTA on fare capping: https://www.amny.com/transit/mta-honchos-working-on-fare-capping-for-omny/

[JeremiahC99]

2 minutes ago, 7-express said:

The first on-record comments from the MTA on fare capping: https://www.amny.com/transit/mta-honchos-working-on-fare-capping-for-omny/

This is great. This could save people both upfront and in the long run (hopefully), especially if they travel very often. This was one of my things on my long wish list for OMNY. I could've had one of these during my summer job.

I wonder if they could also implement an option for a one-day fare cap. My idea would've included a one-day fare cap at the cost of a daily round trip.

[QM1to6Ave]

1 hour ago, 7-express said:

The first on-record comments from the MTA on fare capping: https://www.amny.com/transit/mta-honchos-working-on-fare-capping-for-omny/

NOw we finally have official confirmation that the idiot who posted that fare capping is already in effect was wrong. Shocking.

[mrsman]

Does anyone know how OMNY cards treat "walking transfers."  

In the Metrocard era, you can transfer for free between 59/Lex and 63/Lex.  Technically, you can swipe in at any station in the system and so long as you swipe in to either 59/Lex or 63/Lex within 2 hours, you can continue your journey for free.  But the problem with this is that the free transfer used here will remove your ability to transfer for free to a bus at the conclusion of your trip.  As many people use this to make a non-existent transfer from  to  and take the  to Queens and then continue on a bus to Eastern Queens, this negatively affects a lot of people.

So does anyone know if OMNY has fixed the problem, allowing people to make the walking transfer between 59 and 63 while preserving your right to transfer to a bus at the conclusion of your trip, so long as your bus swipe is within 2 hours of your first swipe?

 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

4 minutes ago, mrsman said:

Does anyone know how OMNY cards treat "walking transfers."  

In the Metrocard era, you can transfer for free between 59/Lex and 63/Lex.  Technically, you can swipe in at any station in the system and so long as you swipe in to either 59/Lex or 63/Lex within 2 hours, you can continue your journey for free.  But the problem with this is that the free transfer used here will remove your ability to transfer for free to a bus at the conclusion of your trip.  As many people use this to make a non-existent transfer from  to  and take the  to Queens and then continue on a bus to Eastern Queens, this negatively affects a lot of people.

So does anyone know if OMNY has fixed the problem, allowing people to make the walking transfer between 59 and 63 while preserving your right to transfer to a bus at the conclusion of your trip, so long as your bus swipe is within 2 hours of your first swipe?

 

The best thing to do is to call OMNY and ask.  Don't go on hearsay.  That said, supposedly, OMNY transfers are supposed to be the same amount of time as the MetroCard... Two hours and 15 minutes.

[Amtrak41]

On 10/27/2021 at 9:54 PM, JeremiahC99 said:

This is great. This could save people both upfront and in the long run (hopefully), especially if they travel very often. This was one of my things on my long wish list for OMNY. I could've had one of these during my summer job.

I wonder if they could also implement an option for a one-day fare cap. My idea would've included a one-day fare cap at the cost of a daily round trip.

That's great, but shouldn't MTA have figured this out a couple of years ago ?  OMNY rollout, compared to Ventra, ORCA, and WMATA, is going at a glacial pace. 

I don't see them capping for 1 -day. They got rid Fun Pass, or whatever they called it, years ago since MTA believes in soaking the tourist. 

 

 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

42 minutes ago, Amtrak41 said:

That's great, but shouldn't MTA have figured this out a couple of years ago ?  OMNY rollout, compared to Ventra, ORCA, and WMATA, is going at a glacial pace. 

I don't see them capping for 1 -day. They got rid Fun Pass, or whatever they called it, years ago since MTA believes in soaking the tourist. 

 

 

Their focus has been on security and reliability from the beginning. Passes  fare capping, etc. can be figured out over time.

[Future ENY OP]

Thought I'd bring this conversation over to the subway side also.  (Article also posted on the bus section of the forum)

exploring fare capping idea per this article:

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/traffic/transit-traffic/mta-explores-fare-capping-program-that-would-turn-single-rides-into-unlimited-passes/3361046/

Source: NBC New York.

[BillAv]

7 hours ago, Future ENY OP said:

Thought I'd bring this conversation over to the subway side also.  (Article also posted on the bus section of the forum)

exploring fare capping idea per this article:

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/traffic/transit-traffic/mta-explores-fare-capping-program-that-would-turn-single-rides-into-unlimited-passes/3361046/

Source: NBC New York.

Weird video.  Wouldn't "reprogramming all those vending machines" - as he put it - just be pressing a button somewhere? Unless Cubic charges more to implement fare-capping.  Maybe the MTA paid for the bronze package, and fare-capping is in the sliver package.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

15 hours ago, BillAv said:

Weird video.  Wouldn't "reprogramming all those vending machines" - as he put it - just be pressing a button somewhere? Unless Cubic charges more to implement fare-capping.  Maybe the MTA paid for the bronze package, and fare-capping is in the sliver package.

OMNY is an open platform, but that doesn't mean that implementing some like fare capping is cut and dry.  Modifications still have to be made.

[rbrome]

30 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

OMNY is an open platform, but that doesn't mean that implementing some like fare capping is cut and dry.  Modifications still have to be made.

Maybe. But MTA officials have been talking more like OMNY was designed to support fare capping all along. It may support it already and only wide-scale testing is required. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

5 minutes ago, rbrome said:

Maybe. But MTA officials have been talking more like OMNY was designed to support fare capping all along. It may support it already and only wide-scale testing is required. 

It is, hence why I said it's an open platform.  Before OMNY even came out, circa 2019, I was chatting with some of them before a meeting and they said then that the system afforded them an array of options, from fare capping to passes and so on, but that doesn't mean that modifications aren't needed to implement such things.  Their focus has always been on security and reliability first and foremost, and they said then that they did not know what they were going to implement, and that was because they had no idea if the platform would be secure enough and reliable enough and they needed to time to work out kinks, and believe me, this platform definitely has some kinks.

A major complaint initially was that people were being charged erroneously, including bus operators driving the buses because the range to scan contactless cards and mobile transit enabled cell phones was too wide, so that was one adjustment that had to be made among other things.  Another issue is still being charged for rides not taken, and it seems that so far, they have not been able to resolve this problem.

[bobtehpanda]

2 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

OMNY is an open platform, but that doesn't mean that implementing some like fare capping is cut and dry.  Modifications still have to be made.

 

1 hour ago, rbrome said:

Maybe. But MTA officials have been talking more like OMNY was designed to support fare capping all along. It may support it already and only wide-scale testing is required. 

 

1 hour ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

It is, hence why I said it's an open platform.  Before OMNY even came out, circa 2019, I was chatting with some of them before a meeting and they said then that the system afforded them an array of options, from fare capping to passes and so on, but that doesn't mean that modifications aren't needed to implement such things.  Their focus has always been on security and reliability first and foremost, and they said then that they did not know what they were going to implement, and that was because they had no idea if the platform would be secure enough and reliable enough and they needed to time to work out kinks, and believe me, this platform definitely has some kinks.

A major complaint initially was that people were being charged erroneously, including bus operators driving the buses because the range to scan contactless cards and mobile transit enabled cell phones was too wide, so that was one adjustment that had to be made among other things.  Another issue is still being charged for rides not taken, and it seems that so far, they have not been able to resolve this problem.

IIRC, OMNY's lineage is from Cubic, who licensed it from TfL, and Oyster there has had both contactless bank cards and fare capping for over a decade now.

That being said, you'd be foolish to trust something this complicated just works out of the box, and American banks have only recently started issuing large numbers of contactless cards again, so I would imagine it'll happen when it'll happen, but it's not a huge lift like it would be on something truly not designed for it like MetroCard.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

14 minutes ago, bobtehpanda said:

 

 

IIRC, OMNY's lineage is from Cubic, who licensed it from TfL, and Oyster there has had both contactless bank cards and fare capping for over a decade now.

That being said, you'd be foolish to trust something this complicated just works out of the box, and American banks have only recently started issuing large numbers of contactless cards again, so I would imagine it'll happen when it'll happen, but it's not a huge lift like it would be on something truly not designed for it like MetroCard.

Yeah and that was because of security issues with the old contactless cards, so supposedly, they went back and addressed those things.

[BillAv]

On 11/2/2021 at 11:16 AM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

the system afforded them an array of options, from fare capping to passes and so on, but that doesn't mean that modifications aren't needed to implement such things

It's been over two years since the system went online.  If they wanted to cap, it would have been ready day one. Two years and counting means they don't want to do it.  We've been told that the system is secure enough for pay-as-you-go fares (not to mention linking ONMY to your credit card on their website), but not secure enough for capping?  Reconfiguring the system would involve reprogramming all those "vending machines"?   I'm sure that when the fare is raised to $3 or $3.50, reprogramming will be easy as pie.

With that said, I've been using OMNY for the past two weeks.  I've got a few scattered days off this month, so I'll come out ahead if I only take the subway to commute.  No issues with tapping in or double charges so far.  The only issue I ran into was when I intentionally kept my watch away from the reader to see how close I had to get for it to be read.  I got a message saying that I had to tap in again.  I got two alerts from my CC provider saying that I had been charged (I get auto alerts), but when I checked online, only one had been posted.  So thumbs up, so far.