OMNY Implementation/MetroCard Retirement Discussion Thread Bus Division

[danielhg121]

22 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Not even 0023? That one has been going around for sure.

I just saw 1302 and 1303 roaming around Mitchell-Linden for training purposes. The OMNY reader on 1302 at least say NOT IN SERVICE with red lights around it but they're not in revenue service so it doesn't matter. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 minutes ago, danielhg121 said:

I just saw 1302 and 1303 roaming around Mitchell-Linden for training purposes. The OMNY reader on 1302 at least say NOT IN SERVICE with red lights around it but they're not in revenue service so it doesn't matter. 

What do you mean it doesn't matter? At least one of them is/was in service (0023), so yes it does matter if people are boarding and there is no OMNY reader. 

Edited January 6, 2021 by Via Garibaldi 8

[danielhg121]

21 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

What do you mean it doesn't matter? At least one of them is/was in service (0023), so yes it does matter if people are boarding and there is no OMNY reader. 

I don't know about 0023, it might just be a demo model so they don't want to go through the hassle of installing them. That bus is at Far Rockaway Depot now. 

 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 minutes ago, danielhg121 said:

I don't know about 0023, it might just be a demo model so they don't want to go through the hassle of installing them. That bus is at Far Rockaway Depot now. 

 

Yeah, but I know that bus has definitely been in revenue service.

[Around the Horn]

13 hours ago, danielhg121 said:

I just saw 1302 and 1303 roaming around Mitchell-Linden for training purposes. The OMNY reader on 1302 at least say NOT IN SERVICE with red lights around it but they're not in revenue service so it doesn't matter. 

If they are in training and it says not in service, then the OMNY reader is doing its job

[danielhg121]

7 hours ago, Around the Horn said:

If they are in training and it says not in service, then the OMNY reader is doing its job

I'm not entirely sure how they work, I've seen buses with Not In Service signs up but the OMNY reader is on and I've also seen in-service buses with Not In Service OMNY readers. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

9 hours ago, danielhg121 said:

I'm not entirely sure how they work, I've seen buses with Not In Service signs up but the OMNY reader is on and I've also seen in-service buses with Not In Service OMNY readers. 

The OMNY readers don't always start up right away. I've been on express buses that start at the first stop with the destination signage up and everything, but the OMNY reader is "NOT IN SERVICE", but is ready later on in the route.

[lornaevo]

On 1/7/2021 at 6:19 PM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

The OMNY readers don't always start up right away. I've been on express buses that start at the first stop with the destination signage up and everything, but the OMNY reader is "NOT IN SERVICE", but is ready later on in the route.

Omny has been installed on 1300,1302,1303 and 1304. 

[SoSpectacular]

On 1/3/2021 at 4:46 PM, Snorunts said:

The one on 665 still says "coming soon." I rode it today on the B63.

For some bizarre reason, buses 448-490 and 659-672 all seem to have this issue with the readers. I've driven 475 and 667 lately and they did not function...

[Iron Valiant]

5 hours ago, SoSpectacular said:

For some bizarre reason, buses 448-490 and 659-672 all seem to have this issue with the readers. I've driven 475 and 667 lately and they did not function...

448-490, 659-672 happen to be the buses that also do not have on-board screens installed. I wonder if it relates to that.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

8 hours ago, lornaevo said:

Omny has been installed on 1300,1302,1303 and 1304. 

Very good. If not I would've complained to one of my contacts.

[danielhg121]

Why doesn't the MTA add the fleet number of a bus you tapped in on in your OMNY account history? Seems like a simple feature to add and as a bonus, if you forgot something on the bus, it would appear in your OMNY account and you could track the bus down easily instead of having to remember what bus you boarded.  

Edited January 24, 2021 by danielhg121

[Via Garibaldi 8]

23 minutes ago, danielhg121 said:

Why doesn't the MTA add the fleet number of a bus you tapped in on in your OMNY account history? Seems like a simple feature to add and as a bonus, if you forgot something on the bus, it would appear in your OMNY account and you could track the bus down easily instead of having to remember what bus you boarded.  

For what? It shows the time to paid and the route number. If you forgot something, it's pretty easy to identify which bus you were on by simply providing that info alone.  They can go into BusTrek and see which bus it was. When I forgot my phone on the express bus last year, I was able to quickly confirm if the driver had it. Granted, I have contacts at the  and know some drivers, which made it easier, but still. 

[danielhg121]

On 1/24/2021 at 4:57 PM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

For what? It shows the time to paid and the route number. If you forgot something, it's pretty easy to identify which bus you were on by simply providing that info alone.  They can go into BusTrek and see which bus it was. When I forgot my phone on the express bus last year, I was able to quickly confirm if the driver had it. Granted, I have contacts at the  and know some drivers, which made it easier, but still. 

Stop being so narrow-minded. Sorry, but not every bus line runs every 15-30 minutes like express lines so if you lost an item on a local bus, it would be hard to find out what bus especially when some local/SBS/Limited lines have 30-40 buses on the road during peak hours. Why go through the hassle of having dispatch contact multiple operators to search for an item when you have a trip history? It saves everyone time. It's just a fleet number. 

Edited January 30, 2021 by danielhg121

[Via Garibaldi 8]

2 hours ago, danielhg121 said:

Stop being so narrow-minded. Sorry, but not every bus line runs every 15-30 minutes like express lines so if you lost an item on a local bus, it would be hard to find out what bus especially when some local/SBS/Limited lines have 30-40 buses on the road during peak hours. Why go through the hassle of having dispatch contact multiple operators to search for an item when you have a trip history? It saves everyone time. It's just a fleet number. 

They don't need to contact multiple operators. You know what bus line you took right and around what time you boarded or got off. All they have to do is go to BusTrek and take it from there. The operators are supposed to check their bus after each trip, so if they find something, they turn it in and it is held at the depot. For your information, there are express lines that run just like local lines, so no need to bring that up, as it is irrelevant to this discussion. Most people don't know what the bus# is, regardless of the whether it is local or express. They just know what line they took and the time, and that's sufficient enough. I know because myself and other people have retrieved lost items that way, so take your own advice and stop being so narrow-minded.

Quite frankly, I think you just want it for fanning purposes, not so much for lost items. Just come out and say that. lol

Anyway, I took the M3 yesterday from 34th and Madison to 45th and Madison. My OMNY account shows it was a transfer from the express bus, and shows the time I tapped for the M3. There's only one M3 at that time, so check BusTrek and it's pretty easy for dispatch to figure out which bus it was.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Via Garibaldi 8

[danielhg121]

8 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

They don't need to contact multiple operators. You know what bus line you took right and around what time you boarded or got off. All they have to do is go to BusTrek and take it from there. The operators are supposed to check their bus after each trip, so if they find something, they turn it in and it is held at the depot. For your information, there are express lines that run just like local lines, so no need to bring that up, as it is irrelevant to this discussion. Most people don't know what the bus# is, regardless of the whether it is local or express. They just know what line they took and the time, and that's sufficient enough. I know because myself and other people have retrieved lost items that way, so take your own advice and stop being so narrow-minded.

Quite frankly, I think you just want it for fanning purposes, not so much for lost items. Just come out and say that. lol

Anyway, I took the M3 yesterday from 34th and Madison to 45th and Madison. My OMNY account shows it was a transfer from the express bus, and shows the time I tapped for the M3. There's only one M3 at that time, so check BusTrek and it's pretty easy for dispatch to figure out which bus it was.

Express buses are run nowhere near the same magnitude in terms of frequency as some of the local/SBS/LTD bus lines. I know for a fact, at least prior to COVID, there were multiple local buses assigned to the same trip/run that followed the same time interval and that's not replicated on express bus lines. Regardless, local and express buses tend to bus bunch at peak hours so even if you were to provide that information, they still wouldn't know which bus you boarded to help retrieve your lost item. It's so much easier to pinpoint the bus you took and a bit of an advantage over taking the subway (which I know you're not a fan of) where you can only be limited to what time you swiped into the system.

Do you think I get satisfaction from seeing a fleet number in my OMNY account trip history? ...And not from the pictures I would take if it were a rare occurrence? Even if it were purely driven for "fanning purposes", I think the pros certainly outweigh the cons.

At the end of the day, why are you so against it? It literally cannot do any harm to implement such a feature, it doesn't divulge any bus op personal information and as a leader of an bus advocacy group, I definitely didn't expect this level of pushback especially when riders forget or lose things on the express bus all the time.... Why involve more departments and people when you can just tweet that you forgot an item on a certain bus? I'm not saying they have to put aside everything else to implement this feature immediately but it would be a nice feature. Hell, if you had a particularly good or bad operator and wanted to write in a commendation or a complaint, you have the fleet number at your disposal incase you forgot and to make sure it gets to the right operator. 

Edited January 31, 2021 by danielhg121

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 hour ago, danielhg121 said:

Express buses are run nowhere near the same magnitude in terms of frequency as some of the local/SBS/LTD bus lines. I know for a fact, at least prior to COVID, there were multiple local buses assigned to the same trip/run that followed the same time interval and that's not replicated on express bus lines. Regardless, local and express buses tend to bus bunch at peak hours so even if you were to provide that information, they still wouldn't know which bus you boarded to help retrieve your lost item. It's so much easier to pinpoint the bus you took and a bit of an advantage over taking the subway (which I know you're not a fan of) where you can only be limited to what time you swiped into the system.

Do you think I get satisfaction from seeing a fleet number in my OMNY account trip history? ...And not from the pictures I would take if it were a rare occurrence? Even if it were purely driven for "fanning purposes", I think the pros certainly outweigh the cons.

At the end of the day, why are you so against it? It literally cannot do any harm to implement such a feature, it doesn't divulge any bus op personal information and as a leader of an bus advocacy group, I definitely didn't expect this level of pushback especially when riders forget or lose things on the express bus all the time.... Why involve more departments and people when you can just tweet that you forgot an item on a certain bus? I'm not saying they have to put aside everything else to implement this feature immediately but it would be a nice feature. Hell, if you had a particularly good or bad operator and wanted to write in a commendation or a complaint, you have the fleet number at your disposal incase you forgot and to make sure it gets to the right operator. 

There are some express buses that run every 5-6 minutes during rush hour, so yes some lines do run quite frequently.  Listen, how many things have you lost in the time you've been using the system? I had two phones slip out of my pockets twice in the 15 years I've been riding the express bus, and I got them back both times with no issues in pristine condition. First time I knew the bus I lost it on and just met the driver at a stop. Second time, bus was turned in at the depot and some drivers I knew confirmed it, but regardless, prior to those incidents, I hadn't lost anything in the system, so it's not like a bus driver has several things turn up on each trip. Usually not too hard to pinpoint. In other words, in the overall scheme of things, it's not a huge priority. 

If it's a complaint or a recommendation, many people fill out the form on the bus, so they have the bus# right there. 

 

[RestrictOnTheHanger]

Interesting data point, i took a round trip on the Q53 a couple of days ago and used OMNY both ways. However I wasnt charged for the return trip despite it being less than 2 hours after initial tap. 

Is the logic nit configured properly , or is it different somehow with SBS

[RestrictOnTheHanger]

Someone confirmed on Reddit that the eagle team inspectors have a wrist device for OMNY payment inspections

 

[Lawrence St]

So with the recent announcement, has stated that all day boarding pilots will be coming to 10 bus routes ONLY for the time being.

Some of the bus routes I'm hearing being rumors: 

Bx12+SBS+, Q53, M15+SBS+, B46 so far.

[Lawrence St]

On 4/8/2021 at 10:49 PM, RestrictOnTheHanger said:

Someone confirmed on Reddit that the eagle team inspectors have a wrist device for OMNY payment inspections

 

It seems that some of the devices don't work. I saw someone tap on the M15 +SBS+ earlier and it said GO, yet when the eagle team asked them to tap on their devices, they said he didn't pay.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

4 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

It seems that some of the devices don't work. I saw someone tap on the M15 +SBS+ earlier and it said GO, yet when the eagle team asked them to tap on their devices, they said he didn't pay.

That can happen for an array of reasons. I am dealing with an issue now with one of my card issuers that thinks that all of my OMNY transactions are duplicate charges, so the other day, it refunded me for some legitimate trips without me asking them to. OMNY suspended that card until I pay whatever the balance is, so I will have call the card issuer, let them know that it is not an error (not the first time either) and then have those charges put through again and hope that they aren't refunded again.

In other cases, OMNY takes the charges from your card a few days later. In these cases, it is better to have a physical OMNY card that you can load and just tap and go. That is likely what I will do when the card comes out.

[RestrictOnTheHanger]

If you use google pay , it records the time and location of the tap regardless of if youre charged or not. So in theory that should help until the inspection issue is resolved. Even then TAB forms have an omny account space for verification if you get a citation

[Via Garibaldi 8]

4 minutes ago, RestrictOnTheHanger said:

If you use google pay , it records the time and location of the tap regardless of if youre charged or not. So in theory that should help until the inspection issue is resolved. Even then TAB forms have an omny account space for verification if you get a citation

But that is not the case if you use a contactless card, which is insane.

[RestrictOnTheHanger]

8 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

But that is not the case if you use a contactless card, which is insane.

Agreed. I thought this would have been fixed already.

 And sorry by it, i meant google pay records the tap