Initial thoughts on OMNY (One Metro New York), the contactless fare payment system for public transportation in the New York region.
Two OMNY cards purchased at the New York Transit Museum in Grand Central Terminal
OMNY service overlaps a few themes: government services, public transportation, technology, payments systems.
OMNY is contactless. I purchased an optional, physical card and the first thing I wanted to know is “what happens if I try to swipe it?” The physical card is too thick for the reader, it is blocked on entry, and you cannot swipe it. The physical card does have a NFC chip and that allows for the OMNY reader to scan the card when it is close by.
There is a magnetic strip on the back of the card, a card number, a CVV, and a barcode but none of those features can be used at this time to get you into the transit system. They can be used for adding more value to the card, which can be done in some stores and online.
In the online discourse I saw a reply that the Card # could not be used like a credit card because it is 18 digits long instead of the expected 16. I had never thought about how long a credit card ‘should’ be so I looked more into this and it my current thought is the Card # can be used like a credit card but that functionality does not exist yet. I had previously seen that credit card numbers use Luhn’s algorithm to determine if a credit card number is (syntactically) valid. I used an online Luhn Algorithm Calculator and, without giving away my card number, returned this output: 50 mod 10 = 0, that means this number is valid. Further, this capital one website states: A typical credit card number is 15 or 16 digits long. But you may see some as short as eight digits and as long as 19 digits.
Designing the card to not use the existing Metrocard swipe feels like a calculated risk. The benefit is it firmly educates riders that the swipe cannot be used and will remind us every time we try to swipe and get blocked. The risk is the OMNY system may stop working and the card cannot be used as a fallback plan; if OMNY goes down and the Metrocard system is up, and the rider only has an OMNY card — they cannot get in. New turnstiles that take OMNY would fix this, but I don’t think that will happen.
Metrocard only
On the list of screen status one includes a metro card only. As OMNY is rolling out, this suggests rides should still keep a metrocard with them in case the OMNY readers are down. They will not be able to use the magnetic strip of the OMNY card on the metrocard readers because again, the card does not fit. The MTA did roll out OMNY Pay Scanners At All Subway Stations And MTA Buses and that coverage is good for the city. The big moves in expansion from the city to the metro, fulfilling the M in OMNY, will be adding AirTran and the commuter rails MNRR and LIRR. AirTran is a different authority, not the MTA but the Port Authority of NY & NJ. This distinction does not mean much to international travelers and the queue to buy a metro card, pay $7.75 (soon $8) to exit (plus $1 for the card itself) and then $2.75 to enter the subway system fails along the organizational design of the network and is a poor way to welcome visitors to New York. One card, one fare, one seat is the dream. Even more, OMNY’s value is in its contactless payment; removing the $1 fee, removing the need to register for the OMNY network, moving the fare to a one-tap fee on existing technology removes friction from the process and stands out as a benefit of this program.
Weekly fare capping has started as a pilot, after 12 trips the rest of the rides are free. The limit on this is that it’s not a rolling week i.e. any 7 days. It is specifically the week of 12 am Monday - 11:59 pm Sunday. It also appears that once a rider is eligible for the free rides, there is no distinction on-tap that the ride (or the transfer) are free. This appears to be because the access step is different than the fare step.
These do not exist but I think they should! I made these recommendations for updated signage to include real-time notifications once a ride is eligible for a free ride. These will not be possible until the access and payment steps are joined.
With the metrocard, when you swipe and you don’t have enough money on the card, you get an immediate notification: insufficient fare. In my experience recently, it appears the process for OMNY is to let you in, and then email you later informing you that your travel card has been suspended.
The design of this experience is not great! Especially when compared to its equivalent on metrocard, which is an instant “insufficient fare” notice on screen.
Being surprised with this email is not pleasant! Losing the ability to inform a rider there is insufficient fare is a technology problem, and the MTA does not appear to be the owner of improving this experience. Although this happened in 2022, many of OMNY’s websites and emails still say 2019.
The value of tap-to-go is significant and I’m glad it has been added to the subway and busses. I’m glad to see a fare capping strategy already shipped, and I look forward to a unified payment across the metro, including the ferry, AirTran, and commuter rails. Adding other merchants would be another transformational feature of OMNY. For travelers, allowing them to load the card online will save them needing to do cash currency conversion. Adding the ability to fill the card from pre tax incentives like Wage Works will also increase the card’s value. And as a functioning prepaid debit card the OMNY card could add value to unbanked citizens, similar to the cash app cash card. This would also be a benefit to younger people who may not yet have a debit card but would be able to have a controlled environment that an adult could manage. Growing up I used to bring a check from home to school, and in exchange I would be handed meal tickets, which I would hold onto and tear off individually each day for lunch. A card like OMNY could centralize and solve many ad hoc solutions like this one.
In 2012 I traveled to Hong Kong. I purchased an Octopus card, loaded money onto it and used it for the train and 7-11. It was valid for 7 years (similar to OMNY’s 8) and way more than the metro card’s 1.5. This moment felt like living in the future, saving me from per-transaction international fees with my credit card and easily networked into the local infrastructure. 10 years later New York is starting to build a similar service but advancements in bluetooth and NFC have started to provide these services independent of cities who no longer need to make their own system but can rather plug into the global payment network.
The potential for OMNY is significant and I am looking forward to seeing what enhancements can get done. Improving fare capping, insufficient fare, and transfer notifications, adding flexibility into a rolling 7 day ride cap, expanding to more transit, adding weekly, monthly, student, and senior rates, and further into other lines of business will all be big milestones if they are delivered.