42 replies to this topic

[CNJRoss]

Business Insider:
 

New York is finally catching up to the rest of the world and moving away from its iconic MetroCard. But there's one glaring problem with the replacement.

 

 

A commuter swipes her MetroCard above a contactless card payment scanner installed at a turnstile at the Chambers Street subway station in New York. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is phasing out its MetroCard in favor of a new payment system that allows commuters to use their cellphones or certain types of debit or credit cards to pay their fares directly at turnstiles. () AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

 

 

Americans who have travelled abroad have likely gotten a taste of what transportation could be like.

 

In London, for example, a simple tap — of an Oyster card or your credit card — gets you through onto the Tube. The same is also true in Hong Kong, Singapore, Santiago, Chile and other cities across the world.

 

But New York, the US's largest transportation system, like in other technologies, has been slow to catch up. The subway system, after all, only ditched physical tokens for fare payment in 2003. That's finally going to change.

 

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But there's one glaring problem: most US consumers don't have contactless cards.

 

Only about five percent of the roughly 480 million cards in service in the United States had contactless payment technology in 2017, according to research by ATKearney. What's more, they only make up about 0.18% of all transactions.

 

That's an issue Visa and Chase are trying to tackle together.

 

More here.

[KevinKorell]

Second Avenue Sagas, 6/2/19:

 

 

With OMNY launch, the end of the MetroCard almost finally arrives

 

 

It’s hard to believe the MetroCard is only 26 years old. It seems as though the MTA has been talking about replacing the now-iconic blue and gold cards for nearly half its life, but that’s what happens when plans for a fare payment system based on a magnetic strip first proposed in 1983 take a decade to become a reality. By the time everyone is using the thing, it’s already outdated.

 

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[CNJRoss]

New York Daily News, 6/3/19:

More than 10,000 people use MTA’s new OMNY payment system during system’s first weekend

 

 

The MTA seems to have tapped into something big with its new OMNY tap-and-pay system, which the agency says is proving more popular than expected.

 

About 10,700 riders used the system on Saturday and Sunday, its first full two days in service. OMNY readers went into service Friday afternoon at 16 subway stations along the No. 4, 5, and 6 lines and on the entire Staten Island bus network.

 

Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Max Young said the agency initially thought the payment system would do no more than 13,500 taps per week — a mark that was nearly hit in just two days.

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

Quartz, 6/8/19:
 

How much free NYC subway rides will cost Mastercard

 

 

Just how many tourists, Brooklynites, bankers and media executives ride the New York City subway on Fridays during summer? While it sounds like banal cocktail party fodder, it’s actually key to knowing how many free subway rides Mastercard is giving to riders when they tap their phones or cards at a turnstile.

 

The credit card company has launched a promotion to pay for New Yorker’s subway trips if they use a Mastercard to tap into the system. Riders can use a physical card that has an RFID chip or a virtual one loaded onto their phone’s digital wallet app.

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

Vice, 6/17/19:
 

The Forgotten Operating System That Keeps the NYC Subway System Alive

 

Vintage technology has powered the innards of the NYC subway system for decades—and sometimes, it surfaces in interesting ways. This one’s for you, OS/2 fans.

 

 

A New Yorker and a tourist walk into the subway station at 42nd Street, also known as Times Square.

 

One is delighted to be there; the other, extremely annoyed. One knows how to get out of there as quickly as possible. The other doesn’t. The New Yorker and the tourist are distinct but in this moment, they are the same.

 

Both are about to swipe their MetroCards, subject to the whims of the Metropolitan Transit Authority and the unheard-of reliability of a marginally successful operating system from the early 1990s.

 

And that operating system remains in use as the subway system feels the daily strain from heavy use.

 

Continue here.

 

A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail.

[CNJRoss]

The New York Times, 7/30/19

 

So Long, Swiping. The ‘Tap-and-Go’ Subway Is Here.

 

The switch from the MetroCard to tapping a credit card or smartphone is a major milestone for the struggling subway.

 

 

It can often feel like New York City’s subway is stuck in the Stone Age compared with systems in other cities across the world. Trains built in the 1960s still run on the subway tracks and parts of the signal system date back to before World War II.

 

But perhaps one of the greatest symbols of the outdated system is the MetroCard — the flimsy fare card that was introduced a quarter century ago.

 

Cities like London and Chicago have embraced tap cards and smartphone payments while New Yorkers still stand at turnstiles trying to swipe their MetroCard at the precise slow, but not-too-slow, speed to avoid the dreaded “Please swipe again.’’

 

Now New York is finally getting a modern “tap-and-go” fare system that will make other cities jealous. 

 

The system, called OMNY, short for One Metro New York, started in May on a handful of subway and bus routes. Riders can tap a credit card or smartphone on an electronic reader and keep walking.

 

OMNY will be installed on the rest of the subway and bus system by the end of next year and on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, the two commuter railroads the authority operates, by 2021.

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

Bloomberg 8/13/19

 

New York Tries to Bring the Subway Fare Into the 21st Century

 

Beset by decay and delays, the nation’s largest transit system is spending $540 million to ditch the swipe card. This isn’t the first time it’s been tried. 

 

 

A trial program to replace the New York City MetroCard reached 1 million rides in just 2 1/2 months, the Metropolitan Transit Authority announced Tuesday. But whether this latest effort to bring Gotham’s dysfunctional, 115-year-old underground into the 21st century can work system-wide is another matter entirely.

 

Modeled on payment technology used in London and Chicago, the $540 million OMNY system allows New York commuters to scan credit or debit cards (as well as smartphones and smartwatches) instead of using the ubiquitous yellow card. The frustration of swiping and reswiping as your train leaves the station will be a thing of the past. Or at least that’s the hope.

 

Beyond speeding humans through the city’s 472 subway stations, OMNY aims to integrate those millions of transactions into financial networks. But imposing a new form of fare payment on any urban transport system, let alone one with an annual ridership of 1.75 billion, can be a major undertaking. Al Putre, head of the MTA’s New Fare Payment Program, calls the endeavor a “heart transplant.” Things often go sideways.  

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

amNewYork, 8/13/19
 

MTA's new fare system OMNY hits millionth tap

 

 

More and more commuters are tapping into the city’s subways and buses.

 

While extremely limited both in features and locations the number of commuters tapping through the MTA’s new fare system, known as OMNY, has far exceeded the transit authority’s expectations. At 9:05 p.m. on Aug. 8, the MTA recorded its one millionth OMNY tap at Fulton Center — roughly four times faster than it had planned.

 

“I think the fact that we’ve gotten to the millionth tap so quickly affirms the acceptance by our customers who find it unbelievably convenient,” said MTA chairman Pat Foye in Fulton Center Tuesday, where the authority basked in the news. “It shows something we already know, which is that New Yorkers are tech savvy and willing to try new technology.”

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

Staten Island Advance, 8/16/19
 

OMNY rollout: MTA to prioritize 2 stations utilized by many Staten Island riders

 

 

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As the MTA continues to rollout OMNY, the city’s new contactless fare payment system, the agency will prioritize two subway stations that frequently service Staten Island commuters.

 

During a recent meeting with the Staten Island Advance’s editorial board, MTA New York City Transit president Andy Byford said the first phase of the rollout has exceeded the agency’s expectations, as the MTA now looks to implement OMNY systemwide by the end of 2020.

 

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“We’re now going hell for leather to get the system rolled out on every bus, on every route, at every subway station within one year," said Byford.

 

"We’re going to prioritize three stations, in particular, that are particularly used by Staten Islanders. Namely Bowling Green, Whitehall and the 86th Street R station in Brooklyn.  .  .  .

 

More here.

[CNJRoss]

Bloomberg 8/15/19

 

Video:  How New York Is Trying to Get Rid of the MetroCard Again