The toxic stew of snafus programming, shifting priorities and leadership rotation have derailed OMNY’s $645 million tariff system, which is now years overdue and will cost one other $130 million over budget, sources and documents say.
In consequence, this system’s promise of a single fare card connecting all the region – allowing someone to purchase a single ticket from Hoboken to Huntington, for instance – disappeared within the face of rising costs and delays.
“The primary time you employ it, it is a miracle,” said one frustrated informant. “It’s depressing to see schedule delays.”
OMNY was originally alleged to cost $645 million, but now has a price tag of $772 million that would go even higher, officials confirmed in April. Rollout on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North was resulting from start in 2021 – but now it could possibly be delayed until 2025 or later.
One other source was similarly dejected: “Of all of the tech projects, this was among the best”, describing the diminished ambition as a “civic tragedy”.
![Internal MTA documents outlining branding plans for the OMNY fee system](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011612582.jpg?w=1024)
In accordance with interviews with half a dozen people acquainted with the project, the show has seen at the least three leadership changes over the past two years.
Only a dozen MTA employees are dedicated full-time to constructing and managing OMNY, the agency’s next-generation fare system, contributing to job turnover and burnout, the sources added.
By comparison, that is in regards to the same variety of employees the LIRR used to man one train.
![](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011612581.jpg?w=1024)
The MTA’s initial ambitions might be seen in internal documents that illustrate the way it planned to include the logos of its commuter railroads and the Port Authority’s trans-Hudson PATH connection to OMNY.
Half of that dream is already dead: PATH is constructing a latest, separate system – using the identical contractor MTA uses for OMNY, Cubic Corporation.
The second half is significantly delayed. The MTA recently approved spending $34 million to keep up the present LIRR and Metro-North ticketing system through at the least 2026, because it has not yet finalized projects to bring OMNY to railroads.
OMNY has the potential to revolutionize the MTA’s rail fare sales by potentially installing fare gates at major terminals reminiscent of Grand Central and Penn Station, and installing hitch points on trains and outlying stations reminiscent of Latest York City buses. Such configurations are common in Europe, and commuter railroads in Boston, Philadelphia, and Latest Jersey have also begun to implement them.
The MTA’s Blue Ribbon Panel said the agency should investigate fare gates as a long-term strategy to cut back tolls on the LIRR and Metro-North, which cost $44 million last yr. Nonetheless, the transition would likely face major union opposition as it could mean a whole lot of cashiers employed by each railroads could be retrained and relocated or made redundant.
A Metro-North union representative referred questions related to OMNY to his LIRR union counterparts, who didn’t reply to requests for comment.
MTA officials tried to feign a fiasco by announcing a recent change to OMNY’s board of directors in April.
“With OMNY, the MTA has taken a daring decision to take a step forward,” said MTA Chief Project Chief Jamie Torres-Springer, whose department will now directly oversee the implementation of the charging system.
![OMNY fare touch screens on subway bends](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000008950634.jpg?w=1024)
It is a shocking twist for a show that originally got off to a tumultuous start.
The MTA and Cubic installed receivers in every subway station and bus in time by the tip of 2020. Currently, the system processes greater than 40 percent of MTA bus and subway tickets.
And officials said after announcing that the MTA would finally begin installing long-awaited OMNY card dispensers this summer, after a delay of at the least a yr, officials had achieved some momentum.
However the MTA and Cubic struggled to get the remainder of the system up and running, sources say, resulting from the contractor’s faulty computer code and the issue of the transportation agency in overseeing the corporate.
Take the OMNY app, for instance, which was once promised to launch by January 2021. In late 2022, officials said it probably would not launch until late 2023; in April, officials warned it could face more delays.
![Splash screen mockups for OMNY app.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011612585.jpg?w=1024)
In accordance with The Post sources, certainly one of the important thing turning points was the choice made in mid-2021 so as to add latest capabilities to the already complex and troubled software that underlies OMNY.
Originally, the MTA planned to supply passengers who qualify for discounted or free fares with a dedicated card that has the discount directly programmed into it — a straightforward solution that works very very like the present MetroCard system, based on a 2019 memorandum.
The portion of the OMNY system that permits riders to directly join for rides using a mobile phone, credit or debit card could be reserved for those paying the total $2.75 to maintain the pc system easy.
Officials feared that attempting to construct a system that matches discounts to a stripe or bank card device would grow to be a programming nightmare that would slow development and wait.
Nonetheless, this decision was reversed resulting from leadership changes as the unique head of OMNY retired and the previous governor. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers dueled over who would replace outgoing MTA chairman Pat Foye.
![Displaying the OMNY screen](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011624681-1.jpg?w=1024)
“It took a very hard technical query from the back to the front of the road and really tousled the work,” the source said.
The primary mention of the change was buried on page 77 of a 139-page routine report submitted to the MTA board in June 2021.
Subsequent updates have shown that the choice contributed to the countless delay issues this system has faced.
In January 2022, the OMNY team reported that Cubic would miss the unique September 2021 deadline for delivering the required show by seven months resulting from ongoing “quality control” issues.
Cubic and its developers also missed the April deadline. The software delivered in May 2022 was riddled with bugs that took one other five months to repair, based on a report submitted to the MTA board in October.
“They promised a product they couldn’t deliver,” one other source said. “After they delivered, they were years late.”
![Passenger taps credit card to OMNY screen to access subway system](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000008950635.jpg?w=1024)
In statements, each the MTA and Cubic argued that the choice didn’t contribute to OMNY being late and over budget, because the software was at all times intended to eventually have the feature.
Similar programming issues also contributed to delays within the entry of the JFK AirTrain and the Roosevelt Island Tram into OMNY, two other high-profile frustrations with the system.
Officials say each are set to finally have turnstiles equipped with taps by November.
MTA officials defended OMNY and their management of the project, whilst they acknowledged in an announcement that additional delays could still occur.
“[T]there isn’t a doubt that technology has modified since we launched OMNY, which is why the MTA is taking a fresh take a look at our delivery schedule so we are able to deliver the total potential of OMNY to our thousands and thousands of each day transit passengers,” said MTA spokesman Sean Butler.