The MTA still has technology kinks work out when it comes to moving fare checks, however.<\/p>\n
OMNY has been notorious for charges showing up hours or even days<\/a> after people tapped to pay with their card or phone. The MTA claimed to have taken care of that issue, but frustrations persist with the fare-checking tech employed by EAGLE teams.<\/p>\n Lindsay Parme, a professor at Brooklyn College, told Streetsblog that EAGLE team officers removed her and two others from the B44 earlier this month even though they\u2019d all paid. Parme, who has to go to a hearing<\/a> to prove she paid, said the officer told her the MTA\u2019s system doesn\u2019t always update to include an immediate payment from a phone or card.<\/p>\n \u201c[The officer] was acting like it\u2019s a minor inconvenience, but I just got off work, and now I have the stress every time I go to Brooklyn College that this going to happen to me, and I\u2019m going to be late for teaching,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople who are are falsely accused that have set schedules, that have kids can\u2019t spend the hours to fight their ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n Lieber, who took over the agency in 2021, has insisted that \u201cEuropean-style\u201d practices like moving fare checks and all-door bus boarding<\/a> \u2014 an adjacent OMNY-related policy that also speeds up buses \u2014 depend on full OMNY implementation, since the MTA has no way to check if MetroCard users have paid. The MTA stopped selling MetroCards at the end of 2025, but riders can still use them to pay their fares, and officials have not said when that will change.<\/p>\n Generally, European transit agencies allow fare checks on moving buses and simply hand ticket to anyone who hasn\u2019t paid. Other American transit agencies, such as San Francisco\u2019s MUNI buses<\/a> and Indianapolis\u2019s IndyGo bus rapid transit, have similar policies to ensure riders can get where they\u2019re going in a timely fashion, advocates noted.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a pretty clear preference for keeping vehicles moving during fare inspections, for obvious reasons,\u201d said Effective Transit Alliance Executive Director Blair Lorenzo. \u201cBoth speed and reliability are key factors that drive ridership, and random, unpredictable stops to inspect everyone on a bus obviously harms both.\u201d<\/p>\n Riders Alliance Digital Strategist Derrick Holmes recently tweeted<\/a> that fare inspectors who boarded his B44 stopped the bus for five minutes to check if every rider paid. In response, MTA spokesperson Tim Minton claimed<\/a> that Transport for London fare inspectors do the same thing, while noting that the United Kingdom is technically no longer part of Europe.<\/p>\n Technically it\u2019s no longer Europe, but TfL in London checks fare payments the same as NYC Transit. Should get faster here when we go \ud83d\udcaf tap to ride. pic.twitter.com\/anWf2rWiEl<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/EAGLE-team-fare-evasion-inspection-mta-bus-1-e1779322727251.jpg\")
An unarmed MTA Eagle team officer checks for fares on a stopped bus in the Bronx. Photo: Marc A. Hermann\/MTA<\/p>\n