This 12 months’s change to OMNY playing cards for New York Metropolis college students set off a wave of pleasure for a whole lot of hundreds of children whose public transit choices all of the sudden multiplied.
Beneath the brand new system, youngsters rise up to 4 free journeys a day on playing cards that can be utilized 24 hours a day, 12 months a 12 months. Extending the journey window and together with weekends, holidays, and summers is a serious change from the earlier system, the place college students acquired MetroCards with solely three swipes throughout restricted hours solely on faculty days.
“It’s about flexibility. That’s the distinction,” mentioned MTA Chair Janno Lieber at a July press convention.
Now, a number of months into the rollout of the brand new OMNY playing cards, the impression of this system is coming into focus. It’s led to a serious uptick in scholar ridership in comparison with final 12 months alongside some implementation hiccups, transportation officers mentioned in a Metropolis Council listening to earlier this week.
Officers are already planning the subsequent section for the 2025-26 faculty 12 months: an OMNY app for college students to make use of with cellphone faucet. That would assist, particularly since some college students have considerations concerning the flimsy paper materials the coed OMMY playing cards are product of.
To assist protect the OMNY playing cards, some faculties have laminated them so that they’ll last more. However an MTA spokesperson mentioned laminating “isn’t beneficial” and steered a plastic protecting sleeve as a substitute.
College students are alleged to ask their faculty for a substitute if their card is misplaced, stolen, or broken, officers mentioned.
Listed below are some key numbers that make clear what the OMNY card change means for teenagers and faculties, which wrinkles are nonetheless getting ironed out, and the place issues might go from right here.
2.5 million
The variety of public transit journeys that New York Metropolis college students have taken through the first month of faculty, mentioned John Benson, deputy senior govt director within the metropolis’s Workplace of Pupil Transportation, at a Metropolis Council listening to.
That represents a 36% improve over the identical interval final 12 months, suggesting youngsters are benefiting from the expanded entry or maybe swiping extra after they do experience trains or buses, or a mixture of each.
$50.5 million
The sum that town Training Division is paying the MTA for the coed OMNY playing cards, which covers an estimated 500,000-600,000 college students, Benson mentioned.
That’s a big discount, Benson contended. If each scholar used all 4 swipes each day, at $2.90 a swipe, that will place the worth of the playing cards in “the billions.”
0.5 miles
The gap college students should dwell from their faculties to qualify for OMNY playing cards.
Some legislators are pushing to incorporate youngsters who dwell inside 0.5 miles of their faculties.
Such a change would make an extra 500,000 college students eligible, primarily doubling the scale of this system, and would include a price ticket, Benson mentioned.
Children ineligible for normal OMNY playing cards can nonetheless qualify for two-trip MetroCards in the event that they take part in extracurricular actions that require them to journey on evenings or weekends, Benson mentioned.
Lower than every week
The size of time it ought to take faculties to obtain OMNY card refills through courier supply in the event that they’re brief, Benson mentioned.
Some faculties have reported shortages, a problem Benson attributed to defective knowledge or surprising enrollment will increase. If faculties want extras sooner, they will decide them up from the Workplace of Pupil Transportation headquarters in Queens, he added.
$35-$1,500
The worth vary for which college students had been promoting their OMNY playing cards on-line in an rising black market, in line with a current report within the New York Put up.
Benson acknowledged the phenomenon within the council listening to. MTA officers instructed the Put up the playing cards can be deactivated, however didn’t present particulars about how the MTA would discover out they had been bought.
10-day letters
Some faculties with OMNY card shortages have given college students letters to point out MTA or NYPD officers explaining the state of affairs and asking for a brief reprieve on the fare, Benson mentioned. The MTA authorized these letters in 2021, however the usage of the letters this 12 months “has not been licensed by our workplace,” Benson mentioned.
Subsequent 12 months
When officers anticipate to begin phasing within the OMNY app so college students can use their scholar perks with a cellphone faucet, Benson mentioned.
Bodily OMNY playing cards will nonetheless be obtainable for many who choose them, he added.
Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, masking NYC public faculties. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.
