OMNY fare readers keep falling off mounts on MTA buses

OMNY readers used to collect fares on MTA buses keep falling off their mounts, forcing the agency to spend $4.5 million to fix the problem, according to contract documents published Friday.

The problem persisted for years while transit officials traded blame with representatives from Cubic, the company contracted to install and oversee the OMNY system, the documents show.

“In January 2021, cracks were found affecting a large number of the mounting brackets resulting in the bus validators falling off their mounts,” the MTA documents said. “There was a dispute between MTA and Cubic as to whether the failure of the brackets was a design defect or caused by MTA’s maintenance of the brackets.”

The MTA board is slated to approve the expenditure to fix the mounts on Wednesday. The agreement requires Cubic to install new mounting brackets for the 11,359 tap-to-pay readers in place on the MTA’s fleet of buses.

The issue is the latest mishap in the MTA’s rollout of OMNY. The MTA inked a $573 million contract with Cubic to install the system in 2017 with plans to fully phase out the MetroCard in 2023. Transit officials have since said the COVID pandemic delayed the installation. Cubic has also fallen behind schedule on delivering OMNY vending machines that allow riders to buy a fare card with cash. An MTA consultant in December estimated the work to fully roll out OMNY won’t be finished until the end of 2026.

“Overwhelmingly, subway and bus customers are using the convenience of the contactless fare payment system, so of course we are going to make sure any hardware defect is addressed appropriately by the contractor at their expense," MTA spokesperson Joana Flores said in an email. "In this case, the contractor will do a full fleet replacement at their expense - and the MTA is also adding upgrades that will result in future maintenance cost savings.”

Representatives from Cubic did not respond to a request for comment.

The issue also comes as the MTA is fighting to crack down on fare evasion. The agency estimated 44% of bus riders didn’t pay the fare during the final three months of 2024. It’s unclear if the broken OMNY reader mounts had any effect on the high evasion rate.

“The implementation of OMNY has been a decades-long journey,” said J.P. Patafio, Transport Workers Union Local 100 head of buses. “So I’m not surprised that once again there’s a problem with the outside contractors' work.”

Patafio said that replacing the mounting brackets of every OMNY reader on every bus in the city will be a “tremendous undertaking” since buses are constantly in service.

This story has been updated with comment from MTA spokesperson Joana Flores.