STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Getting from Staten Island to the rest of New York City can be a costly endeavor, especially when a free transfer is no longer free.<\/p>\n
Recently, a Staten Island commuter contacted the Advance\/SILive.com with concerns that free transfers between express buses were no longer available.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Transfers] were free with Metrocard, but I was charged full fare twice with OMNY,\u201d said Konstantin Klokachev of Old Town.<\/p>\n
According to Klokachev, he has previously been able to transfer for free between the SIM15 and SIM10 during his commute.<\/p>\n
In September, however, he noticed he was being charged for this transfer.<\/p>\n
OMNY transaction records provided by Klokachev show that in July, he was able to transfer from one express bus on Staten Island to another, within an approximately 10-minute window, for free.<\/p>\n
More recent records from October, however, show Klokachev getting charged for two separate fares on express bus rides less than 10 minutes apart.<\/p>\n
When Klokachev first reached out to OMNY, he said he was told that the transfers were not free. <\/p>\n
But after contacting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, he said he was told that transfers were only free going from one borough to another, not between routes in the same borough.<\/p>\n
While looking for an answer, Klokachev said he found an MTA document on MetroCard fares<\/a> from 2023 that states that passengers are \u201centitled to transfer to any express bus route except a bus bearing the same route designation\u201d within a two-hour window.<\/p>\n He said he was unable, however, to find similar guidance for OMNY, which will replace the MetroCard starting next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t find anything about OMNY. I tried the transfer myself and was charged twice for the first and second buses,\u201d Klokachev explained.<\/p>\n \u201cI wonder if it is a change between Metrocard and OMNY, or a mistake?\u201d<\/p>\n When asked for clarification on express bus transfers, a spokesperson from the MTA confirmed that riders should be getting free transfers within a two-hour window, as long as riders go between two separate routes.<\/p>\n In addition, the spokesperson said that the agency is working on a fix for the issue that causes commuters to be charged twice.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are resolving a programming issue caused by human error and reviewing transfer records to ensure no customers are charged for free transfers,\u201d said MTA Spokesperson Joana Flores.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Getting from Staten Island to the rest of New York City can be a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-40564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}