Finance Committee Testimony
Good afternoon, I’m Brian Fritsch, Associate Director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, PCAC.
Today you will consider two Cubic contract options totaling over $38 million dollars. The smaller contract for the retail network seems to us to be an essential service for those who prefer to buy OMNY cards with cash and riders who live far from the subway and the OMNY vending machines in stations. In fact, we wish more people knew the retail network exists and encourage the MTA to do more to promote it.
The second and much larger contract, however, for the OMNY Customer Service Center feels more complicated to us. We hope that when you consider this five-year option, you will ask what the long-term plan is for OMNY customer service and why a separate OMNY customer service center is needed beyond the MTA’s own call center. People want one-stop customer service shopping for all their MTA questions and issues. We often hear from frustrated customers who get ping-ponged from 511 to the OMNY Center and back again, with their problems passed around like a hot potato without resolution. When will OMNY support come in-house to the MTA?
Additionally, there are several OMNY improvements that riders hope to see soon, including:
- OMNY integration to the MTA app, which was promised by the end of the year when the updated MTA app launched this past Spring
- Digital OMNY cards, with an expedient rollout to students, who have had serious issues with the durability of their paper cards
- 30-day and single-day fare caps and/or the return of the monthly unlimited
- Branding OMNY so it looks and feels more like an MTA product
- Additional information on OMNY reader screens, such as if a transfer is being honored, card balance, and progress to fare caps
That’s a lot of work, I know! Riders love the flexibility of the open-loop system, which lets them pay however they choose, but they still need more communication and touchpoints to build trust and confidence in the system. Thank you!