Calling the OMNY customer service line, and for the first time in my life I heard the message "This call may be recorded for training purposes" followed with, "If you would not like to be recorded, press X."
What a concept!
At midnight on 1 January, the flexible credit card-sized pass used by millions of New Yorkers to get through subway turnstiles is being terminated from sale just as a new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, takes office.
The transit system will fully transition to #Omny, a contactless payment system that allows riders to tap their credit card, phone or other smart device to pay fares, much as they do for other purchases.
NYC's OMNY Card Is Here, And I Am Full Of Regret
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://aftermath.site/nyc-subway-omny-metrocard/
The Silent Failure of OMNY: How the MTA’s “Modern” System Leaves Riders Behind
The MTA sold OMNY as the future. A sleek, contactless, modern payment system designed to replace the MetroCard, speed up commutes, and drag New York’s transit infrastructure into the 21st century. It was marketed as a seamless solution, a smoother way to move millions of people every day, a tap-and-go miracle. Except, as every rider who has actually lived with OMNY knows, this future has been more frustrating than freeing, more glitchy than graceful, and more annoying than any system this […]Permanent ringing in my ears from a combination of riding between cars and listening to ICP on tape at ungodly volume levels.
Metrocards being retired this year bums me out. The $4 Fun Pass enabled my life as a kid. I’d ride the trains all day if I was skipping school and none of my friends were.
I’d try and get on as many lines as I could in a day or I’d just sleep on the L and transfer back and forth between Canarsie and 8th Ave. Got picked up for truancy at the Greenpoint Ave G stop once.