From tokens to tapping, the OMNY subway system

Looks like the NYC MTA caught up with the times.

I had written about the flaw in the OMNY system which is used for the subway and busses. It’s where you tap your phone instead of using an MTA card to pay for the fare. Instead of getting a weekly pass for $33.00, you can get the “pass” automatically by swiping 12 times in a 7 day period. It adds up the $33.00. But the problem was the system worked on a specific 7 days – Monday through Sunday. So if you started using the touch system on a Friday, for instance, all the touches/swipes from Friday until Monday, would be useless.

Now it’s any day of the week. You can start the tapping any day and for the next 7 days, it will work it’s way to the free unlimited rides after the first 12. No need to wait for Monday to start.

It should have been that way from the start, I’m not sure why it didn’t. It’s a good thing, too, because apparently in 2024 they will be doing away with the metro cards and the tapping phone system will be the only way to use the subway.

I may have mentioned this before, but I have a friend who jumps the turnstiles. I know, I know. It bothers me, too. He does it when I’m not looking because he knows I am against it.

I told him about the OMNY system – how after 12 rides the rest are free. So he tried it out. After a week he said it was a ripoff. Not because of the 7-day rule where you have to start on Monday at the time, but because it isn’t forever.

I asked him, “You thought you would get 12 paid rides and then forever after that it was free?” He said, “Yes.”

So it’s back to jumping turnstiles for him. He was recently in Boston, not sure how he managed their subway (the T) there.

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