It took a long time to finally get here, but now that the MTA’s mobile ticketing system for LIRR and Metro-North riders is finally here, riders seem to be taking to it pretty well. According to railroad officials, eTix sales have accounted for about 6% of ticket sales so far, which amounts to about 311,000 tickets and $8 million in revenue, and exceeds the railroad’s initial projection of 5% of ticket sales in the first year. When the mobile ticketing contract was awarded, the MTA said they expected eTix to account for about 5% of ticket sales in the first year, then increase by about 5% each year up to a peak of 25% of ticket sales in five years.
For comparison, other systems like the MBTA in Boston and Metrolink in Los Angeles have also implemented Masabi’s JustRide system. Masabi reports that the MBTA’s mTicket system hit 10% of ticket sales in about two months, and the system they developed for Metrolink in Los Agneles achieved an adoption rate of 13% after a month-long pilot.
The cost of the average ticket purchased through eTix for the LIRR so far is about $25, which is a little more than a price of an average round-trip ticket, suggesting a lot of eTix users are those purchasing smaller-value tickets, like one-way or round-trip tickets, and not nescescarily monthly or weekly commutation tickets.
Stronger adoption of commutation tickets may come eventually, though I wouldn’t expect it to represent a signficant margin, given the eTickets, which require you to activate the ticket each and every time you travel, in addition to having the your phone on and open to the app, aren’t as handy as just displaying a paper ticket.
While eTix is growing in popularity, the payment process is still a bit of a hassle—the app app lets you save your credit card information after purchasing a ticket, but it requires you enter the Card Security Value (CSV) each and every time you want to buy a ticket, which means you still have to get your credit card out each time you want to buy a ticket, which is not that convienent. They did make things a little better recently, however, by adding support for Apple Pay (but not Android Pay…) and Masterpass to make paying easier. Masterpass didn’t work at first for me, but it does now, and while you don’t have to enter your credit card number into the app, it still makes you enter the CSV each time, so it doesn’t really make it that convienent. I’m not quite sure how well it works with Apple Pay since I don’t have an iPhone, but hopefully it’s a little better. The lack of an option to pay using mobile wallets was a big complaint riders had when the system was launched, and while Android users are still out of luck, it’s good to see the railroad take suggestions from riders and act on them for once.
It’s good that the railroad acted on passenger’s requests to include support for mobile wallet payments, but they definitely need to keep up the momentum and keep making improvements to the app. eTix has the potential to be used by a lot of people, but in order to get the highest adoption possible, they have to work on resolving some of its more annyoing issues, including:
Don’t require commutation ticket holders to active their ticket each time they travel:
One thing that’s handy with the LIRR’s display tickets is you just have to show them, they’re always good, and there isn’t much action required on your part to show them each time—that didn’t quite translate to eTix for some reason. Instead of an unlimited ticket that’s always good simply being active all of the time, and you just have to launch the app and show it, eTix users have to activate their monthly and weekly commuutation tickets each and every time they want to use them, which can be a hassle. It’s probably the reason why I won’t make the switch to eTix for monthlies. In the eTix FAQ, the MTA says riders need to active their ticket before each use for “security reasons”, but didn’t provide more specifics. When I asked, MTA Spokesman Salvatore Arena said that “there was the very practical consideration that a weekly or monthly ticket activated 24/7 could drain the phone battery and prevent the ticket’s use.” That’s not quite a “security” reason, but NJTransit’s myTix app has commutation tickets activate automatically then stay on 24/7 for the whole month, and it seems to work just fine for those riders, so it’s definitely a surmountable issue, and it shouldn’t really be draining people’s batteries too much in the first place.
Incorporate existing MTA systems into eTix
The MTA is a little nuts with the amount of applications they have and the number of different accounts you have to keep track of usernames and passwords for—right now, the MTA has ten different official mobile applications, inlcuding two TrainTime’s, Subway Time, Bus Time, Drive Time, TripPlanner+, the Weekender, an Arts & Design app, a Grand Central Terminal app, and now eTix. You may also need to sign up for and keep track of up to ten differnet accounts with MTA services and systems. That’s crazy. While it’s been promised that mobile ticketing for both railroads and the subway will done through this one app and with this one account, the MTA should work to combine as many existing or legacy apps and accounts as possible into eTix and make that into one over-arching MTA app, like NJTransit has done with their myTix app (myTix now gives train schedules, has DepartureVision built in, incorporates MyBus for bus arrival information, and has a trip planner all in one app). eTix and the two TrainTime’s have links that let you jump back and forth between the apps, but you still have to have to have multiple apps on your phone.
Instead of having to have separate accounts and log-in information for eTix, Mail & Ride, EZPass, EZPay MetroCard, and other MTA services, I should be able to use one app and one web page to manage and deal with all of those things in one place. Instead of having to have a separate log in and settings for the MTA’s alerting system, I should be able to save my frequent trips using that same app and web page and control that from one place too. There is one MTA, they should at least try to act like one unified agency!
Don’t go too crazy with unification
The eTix app as it is now has all of the Metro-North and LIRR stations in one big list when you go to pick your stations. The intent is good, but having to scroll through a list of 300 stations to get down to Yaphank or Yonkers is a hassle—considering that most people don’t ride both the LIRR and Metro-North on a regular basis, having both in the one list is unescescary. It’d make more sense, in my opinion, to have a toggle or selector at the top to switch between agencies, and that updates the station list, frequently used trips, and TrainTime link for that agency, like the image shown below. What’s going to happen once NYCT is included? Do they add 400 subway stations to the list? Is there another intermediate screen? It seems clumsy.
Include ticket options for UniTicket and Managed Connecting Services
The MTA has stated that eTix integration with the New York City Subway is coming towards the end of next year, and that will greatly expand the capabilities of eTix, but there’s currently no mention of what’s going to happen with UniTickets or managed connecting services. Presently, you can buy paper monthly tickets with a UnitTicket option, which allows you to use your ticket on a bus or ferry service (like NICE or Long Beach Bus on Long Island or the Hudson Rail Link or the Haverstraw-Ossining Ferry in the Hudson Valley). This simplifies things for riders who use both services while also providing a joint discount in these cases.
There’s presently no way to add-on these UniTickets with eTix, and it’s silly that you can’t—to include UniTickets, the MTA will need to cooperate with the other agencies, something they’re not always keen to do, but it doesn’t require additional infastructure (like modifying subway turnstiles). I’m not sure if the MTA has actually reached out to the other agencies, but the present UniTickets work on visual verification (they’re just a symbol printed on the ticket) and eTix works the same way, so there’s little reason why they can’t just extend that practice.
Sell stand-alone tickets for connecting services through eTix, making it one regional transit ticketing app
Leading up to and through the mobile ticketing development process, now-Metro-North Commuter Council member Orrin Getz reccomended to the MTA on several occasions that they just expand NJTransit’s myTix system to include the MTA agencies instead of developing a whole separate app. That would have liekly gotten us mobile ticketing faster and a better system in the process, but most importantly, it would’ve been one system unified with NJT and the MTA, which could’ve opened the doors for better cooperation and ticketing between the two agencies.
Since the MTA loves to do its own thing, that door is closed, but the MTA still has the opportunity to work with other transportation providers in and around its service area to bring a common, unified mobile ticketing system to everyone. Lots of the small trnasportation providers, like Suffolk County Transit, Long Beach Bus, Transport for Rockland, etc., probably don’t have the resources to develop their own mobile ticketing system—SCT doesn’t even have farecards or unlimited passes, everything is just cash fares. And even though larger providers (like ConnDOT for Shore Line East and eventually NHHS Rail) might have the capability to, there’s no reason for them to develop their own system, especially when many riders use MTA systems in adition to these smaller providers.
Expanding the scope of eTix to not only sell tickets for MTA services, but to also handle sales of tickets for other providers in the MTA and ConnDOT service regions would be a huge improvement for these riders, many of which can only pay for tickets with cash on the vehicle itself now, and it would be a great first step for the New Fare Payment System and a regional transportation network that is the slightest bit coordinated. If they can figure it out in Europe, the MTA can figure out a way to do it here.
All told, the MTA’s eTix system is off to a great start, but the system has great potential for expansion that could benefit both MTA riders and others that live in the MTA service area tremendously. Will the MTA see this potential and play nicely with others to make sure it’s realized as quickly as possible?
