19 Discounts Seniors Didnã¢â‚¬â„¢t Know They Could Get Reviews
To Win Riders Back, Chiliad.T.A. to Offer Free Rides for 'Tap-and-Go' Customers
Transit leaders hope to boost ridership by putting a weekly fare cap on trips made with the subway's new "tap-and-go" payment system.
Eager to push button New York City's subway ridership closer to prepandemic levels, transit officials are planning to entice commuters back with convenience and discounts.
Starting March 1, officials intend to put a weekly fare cap on trips made with OMNY, the "tap-and-go" fare system that was introduced ii years agone. Riders who use OMNY at present pay the regular $ii.75 fare for every trip, but under the proposed change, users would go unlimited rides one time they hit a $33 threshold during a seven-mean solar day period — equivalent to the toll of a weekly unlimited MetroCard.
The plan would outset equally a 4-month pilot and discounts would end on June 30, though Janno Lieber, the interim chairman and chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subway, said he hoped it would become permanent based, in part, on how popular it proves and how it affects the M.T.A.'southward budget.
The proposal is being announced Monday and will be voted on by the M.T.A.'southward board at its meeting on Wednesday. Mr. Lieber said he expected the lath to approve the fare plan.
"Nosotros want to make certain that somebody who is continuing in front of the turnstile for their kickoff commute on Mon morning who might non accept the 33 bucks to outlay for a weekly ticket doesn't have to worry near that," Mr. Lieber said. "A lot of people don't know when they go on their first ride of the week whether they're going to exist using information technology 10 times or 11 times or 20 times."
The 7-day period would brainstorm at 12 a.chiliad. on Monday and terminate at eleven:59 p.thousand. on Sunday, One thousand.T.A. officials said.
Ridership trends, Mr. Lieber added, have been upended past the pandemic, which has made what were one time everyday habits unpredictable.
Transit advocates said the alter would save many New Yorkers money at a time when the subway is trying to lure back riders who abandoned the organisation at the get-go of the pandemic early on last yr. Public transit agencies across the country and in other parts of the world are still struggling to find ways to bring riders dorsum.
Although the numbers in New York are climbing, subway ridership in contempo weeks has only been hovering at about 58 percent of prepandemic levels, when over five million people packed the trains every weekday.
The Yard.T.A. has been stabilized by billions of dollars in federal pandemic assistance, simply its long-term fiscal outlook depends heavily on the return of riders and their fares, which make up the agency's largest funding source. Nearly twoscore percent of the bureau's operating revenue comes from fares, a higher per centum than most other major public transit systems in the country.
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"Fare capping is absolutely a program whose time has come, and it'south going to benefit so many riders," said Lisa Daglian, the executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the One thousand.T.A., a watchdog group. "It levels the playing field."
With OMNY — short for Ane Metro New York — riders tin tap a credit carte du jour, smartphone or OMNY carte du jour on an electronic reader to access the subway, a more than modern fare system that many other public transit systems effectually the earth take already adopted. OMNY readers are available at all 472 subway stations and on all 5,800 buses, and fare capping would employ to both modes of transportation.
"If I do happen to ride plenty in a week tapping my bill of fare and I go a gratuitous ride out of it, I wouldn't turn that down," said Amy Kowell, 32, who lives in Brooklyn and works in the financial commune in Lower Manhattan. "Information technology'south definitely appealing."
Ms. Kowell, who was entering the Parkside Artery station in Brooklyn on her way to go shopping on Saturday, said the subway is the main way she gets around the urban center and that she likes OMNY considering it spares her the problem of making sure she has a MetroCard with enough of a balance. Depending on her schedule, she said, she typically takes nearly x to 15 trips per week.
The 1000.T.A. introduced the arrangement in May 2019 on a handful of subway and bus routes. Today, Mr. Lieber said, more than 25 percent of all fare payments are made using the OMNY organisation.
By 2023, information technology will fully replace the transit organisation'south floppy yellow-and-blueish MetroCards.
While capping the fare would add convenience and could save coin for commuters who rely on single-fare rides, advocates caution that in that location are nonetheless drawbacks, pointing out that many depression-income people practice non have bank accounts or smartphones.
An OMNY card is besides more than expensive than a MetroCard — $5 compared with $1. It was unclear how fare capping would work with the metropolis's Fair Fares program, which provides sure low-income New Yorkers a 50 pct discount on public transit rides.
"Some of the broader issues around OMNY haven't been discussed enough with regard to low-income New Yorkers," said Emerita Torres, the vice president of policy, research and advocacy at the Community Service Order of New York, an antipoverty group. "That'due south something that we accept to written report and really look at."
Rosalino Tlatelpa said fifty-fifty if the fares were capped he would not use OMNY because he finds it also confusing. Mr. Tlatelpa, 76, and his wife, Rosa, are retired and receive about $one,100 per month in government aid.
"I don't like it," Mr. Tlatelpa said in Spanish as he and his married woman entered the Parkside Avenue station to travel to a Covid-nineteen vaccine appointment.
Implementing the fare capping plan on a trial basis might result in a loss of fare revenue of $3 million to $five million per calendar month, Mr. Lieber said, but that could be offset with higher subway ridership.
People might be less hesitant about using the subway if they don't have to practise any math to effigy out how much they are spending, Mr. Lieber said.
"Information technology becomes more routine," he said. "As you lot make the fare payment arrangement easier and more rational and fairer, people tend to use information technology a little bit more than rather than looking at every nickel and dime."
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/13/nyregion/omny-nyc-subway-fare-capping.html
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