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Why OMNY readers at the back of MTA buses are effectively useless right now
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Feb 16, 2024
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By
Stephen Nessen
Published Feb 16, 2024
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This column originally appeared in On The Way, a weekly newsletter covering everything you need to know about NYC-area transportation.
Sign up to get the full version, which includes answers to reader questions, trivia, service changes and more, in your inbox every Thursday.
Fare evasion on buses is at a five-year high, and the MTA fears the cure may be worse than the disease.
Last year, the MTA instructed drivers on local buses to keep the rear doors closed unless passengers are getting off. The move was part of an effort to deter fare evasion, but also meant that the OMNY readers the MTA finished installing at the rear doors of local buses in 2020 are effectively useless. The agency still hasn't turned them on.
New York City Transit President Richard Davey implied in December that the agency might allow rear-door boarding on local buses if more people used OMNY.
“That's our focus right now, ensuring that folks have the ability to pay in that back door and about a third or less of our customers right now on [the] bus are using OMNY,” he said.
That’s a far cry from 2021, when the MTA said all-door boarding on buses was “one of the most anticipated features” of OMNY.
But recent statistics show many bus riders aren’t using OMNY – or any other payment method.
The MTA says it lost an estimated $315 million in bus fares in 2022. MTA Chair Janno Lieber has called fare evasion “an existential threat to providing public transit.”
Yet the agency refuses to turn on the OMNY readers on local buses, a measure that would make it easier for riders to actually pay the fare.
“All-door boarding works on the subway… and should be turned on tomorrow on every local bus in the city,” Danny Pearlstein, a spokesperson for the transit advocacy group Riders Alliance, wrote in an email. “What better way to encourage bus riders to start using OMNY than to open up the OMNY-only back door for faster boarding and speedier overall trips?”
The MTA’s experience with Select Service Buses arguably reinforces the notion that rear-door boarding facilitates fare evasion. Riders using select buses are supposed to pay the fare at a kiosk on the sidewalk before boarding the bus through either the front or rear doors. Functioning OMNY readers are also at the front and rear of the bus. But 54% of select bus riders and 45% of local bus riders don't pay the fare, according to the MTA. Those numbers are worse than in 2019, when the MTA estimated 20% of bus riders beat the fare.
But Pearlstein warned that “it's mistaken logic to avoid improving service by keeping paying riders from entering the back door.”
For comparison, fare evasion on subways is 13%.
Lisa Daglian, who represents riders on the MTA’s Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, acknowledges the agency’s predicament. But she suggests the MTA try all-door boarding on local buses.
“Installing an alarm or notification of some kind if someone enters through the rear door without paying could be an option to move toward all-door boarding,” she said. “Getting more people to use OMNY – and speeding up its rollout – could help with that hurdle.”
Jessica Lazarus, the MTA’s senior director for commercial initiatives, briefed the MTA board last September about why more people aren’t using OMNY. She broke it down into three categories: lack of education, lack of trust and lack of value compared to the 30-day MetroCard, as well as free or discounted MetroCards.
The MTA once hoped the MetroCard would be phased out in 2023. Now, the agency doesn’t have a date for when MetroCards will no longer be available.
Currently, 52% of subway riders pay with OMNY, compared to only 30% of bus riders.
The MTA declined to say what needed to happen for it to turn on rear-door OMNY readers on local buses.
So, would allowing local bus riders to board at the back of the bus lead to even more fare evasion, or might people who have OMNY be willing to pay if the rear-door reader were turned on? The MTA doesn’t appear ready to give riders the benefit of the doubt, even as fare evasion trends in the wrong direction.
This week in New York City transit news
Listen here or read below:
- Police arrested a Bronx teenager on Thursday morning and charged him with murder in a subway shooting that took place in the borough on Monday, which killed a man and injured five other people. Read more.
- City officials are planning to turn six waterfront locations into maritime shipping hubs so barges can replace some of the trucks clogging the streets while making e-commerce deliveries. Read more.
- Police arrested a 34-year-old Queens man nearly one year after he fatally struck a cyclist with his truck in Brooklyn. Read more.
- A sociologist who spent three decades studying and interviewing people who lived underneath Grand Central Terminal and in abandoned railway tunnels wants readers of his new book to know these weren’t just “mole people.” Read more.
- Credit where it’s due: The sanitation department's mini plows did a pretty good job clearing bike paths after Tuesday’s snowstorm. (Streetsblog)
- People eager to rent $4,000-a-month apartments in Greenpoint don’t seem concerned about how they’ll get around when the G train shuts down this summer. (Curbed)
- A photo posted on X appears to show two people having sex — or pretending to have sex — while subway surfing on top of a 7 train. (The City)
Curious Commuter
Question (submitted via Instagram):
How much money will the MTA mysteriously burn through before they say they don't have enough to fix the subway?
Answer:
Many people believe the MTA is secretly wasting money. Here are a few tips on how you can track the MTA’s spending of your taxpayer dollars.
The Construction and Development Department has revamped its website and lists most of the projects underway, as well as their costs and timelines. You can see MTA contracts and procurements here and dig into the MTA’s yearly operating budget and capital plan here. Of course, the agency could do better. There’s state legislation to force the MTA to include details in the capital projects dashboard about all sources of funding for each project and specify whether projects are related to accessibility or resiliency.
But to try to directly answer your question, the MTA actually came very close to running out of money during the pandemic. Sen. Chuck Schumer and the federal government came to the rescue with $16 billion to keep the system running and in a state of (relatively) good repair.
Have a question? Follow @Gothamist on Instagram for special opportunities and prompts to submit questions.
If you're not on Instagram, email [email protected] or [email protected] with the subject line "Curious Commuter question."
Tagged
new york city
nyc
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On The Way
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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