Everything you need to know about OMNY

MetroCards will stop working in 2024 [FORWARD TO A FRIEND]( [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [DONATE]( [WNYC Politics Brief] Everything you need to know about OMNY, the new MTA payment method Plus: The MTA will test out protective platform doors at three subway stations. The mayor's plan to move homeless people from trains into shelters is off to a slow start. And ugly concrete barriers are a solid way to separate bike lanes and car lanes. By James Ramsay --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- [a person taps their phone at an OMNY reader] Marc A. Hermann/New York City Transit While the OMNY tap-and-go payment system is already available in every subway station and on all MTA buses — 23% of riders are now using it, the agency said — MetroCards will still work until some time in 2024, when everyone will be required to switch to OMNY. Here's what you need to know before then: Is this a card? Is it on my phone? Do I need to swipe something? No more swiping! There are three ways to do this: • Your smart phone or smart watch: you can pay via your phone's digital wallet (via Google or Apple Pay). • Credit/debit card with microchip: Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, UnionPay, and JCB are all currently accepted. • Reloadable, prepaid OMNY card: You can purchase a prepaid OMNY card at retail locations on [this map](. Not all stores have been putting the cards on display, which has been an issue that Sarah Meyer, MTA chief customer officer, [confirmed with Gothamist](. CVS said it plans to have OMNY cards available in stores in April 2022. Additionally, the MTA said it's testing vending machines that will be placed in subway stations to sell reusable OMNY and single-use OMNY cards. Note: OMNY cards are [$5 each]( before fares are added, but the cards last seven years before expiring. Is there an app? There is no OMNY app yet, but the MTA is currently projecting to launch one sometime in 2023. Are there ride bundles, or is it pay-per-ride? Sort of! [There will be fare capping]( which means after a rider spends $33, or buys 12 rides over a 7-day period, every trip thereafter during that period is free. This is the equivalent of a weekly unlimited MetroCard that you don't have to pay for up front. The MTA is rolling out a four-month fare capping pilot on February 28, 2022. This will give riders using OMNY a weekly unlimited card after taking 12 trips in a single Monday-to-Sunday week. As for a monthly version, the MTA said it will evaluate customer response during the pilot and consider similar enhancements. Are there free transfers? Yes. However, the MTA noted that you must use the same payment method throughout each individual trip to qualify. "If you tap your card to ride the subway, you must tap that same card to obtain your free transfer to a local bus," the MTA said in a statement. "You cannot switch between your card and other payment methods and still obtain your free transfer." Can I tap for another rider? The MTA said the same pass-back rules used with MetroCards apply to OMNY, as well. You can tap up to four times within an hour with your phone, card, or OMNY card. Meaning, you can tap yourself, and three others, too. So, if you are a family of five or more with just one device or card, you will need to acquire another. Will this actually save me time? Using a [tap-and-go payment method is faster]( the MTA insists, especially when you have a bent MetroCard or if the turnstile reader is dirty. Why is the MTA doing this? The MetroCard is [almost 30 years old]( and it's limited to the subways and buses. With OMNY, the MTA will be able to have one payment system across all of its transit divisions: the subway, buses, commuter rails and Access-a-Ride. The MTA has actually been thinking of moving to a smart card-based system like OMNY since 2004. Other subway systems have had smart card technology for decades. South Korea rolled out U-Pass in 1995; Hong Kong launched the Octopus card in 1997; London introduced the Oyster card in 2003; and Chicago began transitioning to Ventra in 2013. Former MTA Chair Jay Walder — informed by his experience as head of Transport for London — proposed the switch, in part, to change customer behavior and get them to use their own devices and reduce reliance on a transit-issued card. — [Reporting by Jen Carlson and Stephen Nessen]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- MTA will pilot protective platform doors at 3 subway stations [a Times Square subway station platform] Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said Wednesday that the agency would begin installing protective platform doors at the Times Square 7 train, the Third Avenue L train, and Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue E train stop at the JFK AirTrain connection as part of a pilot program. The Times Square R train platform, where 40-year-old Michelle Go was fatally pushed onto the tracks last month, is not being included in the pilot. Though the MTA had previously determined that it would be too expensive and difficult to install protective doors on older, curved platforms, the agency decided to try them out after several high-profile incidents of platform shovings. Yonah Freemark, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute, said the three-station rollout was underwhelming compared to similar projects in other parts of the world. "Paris installed platform doors on the entirety of their Lines 1 and 4 — all the stations at the same time," he said. "But three stations is better than no stations. And if the pilot is effective, I am hopeful it would mean rapid progress in installing doors throughout other parts of the system." In the meantime, Lieber said the MTA would also be testing out new thermal and laser technologies that can detect when someone is on the tracks and in the way of danger. — [Reporting by Stephen Nessen]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Here's What Else Is Happening Police officers and outreach workers have slowly begun enforcing Mayor Eric Adams' new plan to remove homeless people from the subway system. The Times tagged along with cops and homeless outreach workers who went around Penn Station and subway line terminals, asking homeless people to leave the system and go spend the night at congregate shelters. Few people took them up on the offer; some said "no thank you," while others got up and moved to a different part of the train station. "We know that enforcement of rules and regs really is not the long-term solution to getting them housing, and we understand that," said Chief Jason Wilcox, the head of the Police Department’s transit bureau. ( [The New York Times]( Last weekend saw a series of unrelated attacks in the subway station. At least [eight non-fatal attacks]( — including four stabbings within a 24-hour period — pose a challenge to the MTA's effort to give the public the perception that the transit network is safe. Though overall transit crime has fallen, according to the MTA, last year saw the highest number of felony assaults in the subway system since 1997, even though ridership remained well below pre-pandemic levels. ( [Gothamist]( A group of parents is asking the MTA to scrap the policy forcing people to fold up strollers on the bus. Several moms said during this week's New York City Transit committee meeting that having to fold a stroller while a bus is lurching back into traffic is too dangerous. "Babies wiggle — mine is both heavy and strong — and I constantly fear he could slip out of my hands while the bus is moving," said one of the moms who requested that the transit agency change its rule. ([AM New York]( It's not the prettiest solution, but putting waist-high concrete barriers between bike lanes and car lanes works. The Department of Transportation is planning to install concrete Jersey barriers in place of the flexible plastic posts that currently line "protected" New York City bike lanes. The DOT also said last week that it's looking at other barrier options that are stronger than plastic sticks but more visible than concrete. ([Curbed]( The NYPD has arrested the hit-and-run driver who allegedly killed a teacher in Greenpoint last year. The police say Tariq Witherspoon, a 30-year-old EMT who previously hit an injured a cyclist in 2017, was responsible for fatally hitting teacher Matthew Jensen while he was crossing McGuinness Boulevard last May. Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, who represents the district where the death occurred, said complete justice would involve finishing the city's plan to make the road safer, "so that when drivers make mistakes — and we all make mistakes — they don’t kill people." ( [Streetsblog]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- And Finally: No, but cool train! [a Harry Potter-themed subway car]( [@CamilaCarvachoY/Twitter]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. Your contributions are our largest source of funding and pays for essential election coverage and more. [DONATE]( [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [WNYC]( [WQXR]( [NJPR]( [GOTHAMIST]( [WNYC STUDIOS]( [THE GREENE SPACE]( Copyright © New York Public Radio. 160 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 All rights reserved. [Terms of Use.]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your [preferences]( or [unsubscribe]( from this list