Please Swipe Again: The Problems with OMNY

OMNY, which if your not familiar with the subway system is the fare card that is used to gain access to the system has had a troubled rollout and since the full switch from Metrocard has faced numerous scrunity from riders

A troubled rollout

The start of the rollout to OMNY was rigged with issues and inconsistencies, with many riders complaining of various issues including issues with the readers not accepting taps from an OMNY card, requring riders to tap repeatby until it worked, delayed or extra charges, and fare cap confusion. This had lead to heavy mixed opinions by riders, with some favoring the fresh rollout of MTA's fare system while others plea and morn the loss of Metrocard.

Never-ending problems 

One issue that has been worryingly common with the OMNY, and is likely common complaint, is that the fare gate failed to read their OMNY payments. This has actually happened to me multiple times in the city and I can tell you firsthand that it is obnoxious and almost made me miss a train home. A whopping 42 percent of survey respondents said this was an issue for them. This is something that needs 

Another reoccuring problem is delayed charges; and apparently this is due to backend processing and it leads to multiple fares showing up in batches later on. While it's not the end all be all as there's rarely extra charges, it's a quite annoying problem that should look to be fixed.

In conclusion, the fact that in the 21st century the MTA cannot rollout a fare system that isn't rigged with issues shows the incompetence going on there. While the MTA calls it "growing pains", and I feel it's understandable that there will be glitches here and there when transitioning to a entirely new system, something that hasn't been done in many years, I think it should be made crystal clear that the MTA wasn't ready for this.

MTA to sell Metrocard-themed cakes and other items!

I decided today I'd take a brief aside from thee semi-frequent posts to tell you about a little something I saw last night that I thought was quite interesting. So basically, as you probably know by now, the New York City subway's main payment card, known as the MetroCard has been announced for retirement on December 31st. And since then, the MTA has launched a "farewell campaign" to partner with a couple of food vendors and provide a couple of edition items to celebrate the end of it.

• Alidoro – La Tessera sandwich (“the card” in Italian): crispy chicken cutlet, sweet soppressata, fresh mozzarella, Calabrian chili vodka sauce and garlic pesto cream on a toasted semolina baguette. The sandwich will go on sale November 3, National Sandwich Day.

• Carvel – MetroCard Flying Saucer, free MetroCard Sprinkles with mention of the MetroCard and purchase of Scooped or Soft Serve ice cream, and custom cakes with edible MetroCard® and Cardvaark images.

• Golden Krust – With purchase of Golden Krust’s signature Jamaican-style patty, a multi-layered, flaky, golden pastry filled with perfectly seasoned beef, chicken, vegetable, or seafood fillings, customers will receive a free Jamaican coco bread, made from a Hawthorne family recipe dating back to 1949, is soft, buttery, and slightly sweet with real coconut milk.

• 
  Gong cha – “The M Tea A Drink:” Inspired by Gong cha’s signature Milk Foam Green Tea, this limited edition drink combines green tea, pearls, blue milk foam made with butterfly pea flower, and chocolate powder MTA logo, echoes the colors of the iconic MetroCard.

• Stretch Pizza (by Wylie Dufresne) – The Metro pizza: vodka sauce, fior di latte cheese, chicken cutlet, spicy Calabrian chili, garlic pesto cream and grated parm.

• Zabar’s – MetroCard and Cardvaark cookies.

I can tell you personally that when I'm next in the city I will definitely be trying the Carvel, Pizza, and the Zabar's cookies because those three look especially delicious!

This is a delicious way to say goodbye to the MetroCard! Thank you Metrocard, you've served us well! And enjoy your retirement!

You Can Purchase A LIRR Ticket To Yankee Stadium

Let’s pretend some guy came up to you and asked you “if you can purchase an LIRR ticket to Yankee Stadium”, what would your response to him be?

For many of you it would probably be no, however the answer is actually yes. If you were to wander up to an LIRR ticket vending machine, if you search “Y”, the option next to Yaphank would be Yankee Stadium.

Photo: The LIRR Today

Now as you must know, the LIRR hasn’t and probably never will operate trains to and from Yankee Stadium, but they included that as a convenience to riders going to/from that station. Basically, from what I’ve seen, the LIRR does or at least did designate “The Train to The Game” route as taking the LIRR to 34 St-Penn Station, then walking to 6th Avenue, and taking a Bronx-bound (D) up Central Park West to 161 St- Yankee Stadium. The nice bonus is that this gives you a ticket, allowing you to skip using a crummy Metrocard Machine.

Since East Side Access, it’s even less useful since you can just take the LIRR to Grand Central and connect to Metro-North there, and now that they are unfortunately phasing out Metrocards to OMNY, I don’t know what will be of this little-known feature. I’m not even confident it exists anymore on the ticket machine to be totally honest.

I personally can’t tell you what it says on the ticket, since I’ve never purchased a ticket there and probably never will. I tried looking it up but their doesn’t seam to be any photos of the ticket online and I’m too lazy to go up to my local station and buy one.

In conclusion, it’s another useless little Easter egg that little know about due to it being hidden away with Yaphank (a station, again, few search for), but next time your going to take the LIRR and connect to the subway, try the Yankee Stadium option and see if it raises any eyebrows!