NYS Thruway EZ Pass has a Green Pass

Ouch! I used the website contact form to ask how long it would take, and instead of just telling me they gave me a phone number to call:
"In order to answer your questions, may we suggest contacting Eileen Compani, customer service representative, Thruway Authority E-ZPass Operations staff, at 518-471-5848 directly."

I haven't called yet, but perhaps you could try it and report back.

 

My final roundup on this.

Short version: If you want the green pass for both the NY Thruway and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PA), you can sign up for an E-ZPass account with the Thruway (no monthly fee), have them add the NYGREEN plan and send you the green transponder, then request through the NY E-ZPass website contact page that they add the PAGREEN Port Authority plan to your account. You need only the one transponder ("Tag" in E-ZSpeak), but it is not automatically enabled for both authorities.

Long version: There are three E-ZPass authorities around NYC: MTA, PA, and Thruway. Although they share a website and send a consolidated bill, they run independently otherwise, and the services available depend on who your account is with. PA and Thruway each have a discount plan for fuel-efficient vehicles, but they are separate plans.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I signed up for E-ZPass when it was first introduced around NYC, and my account was with the MTA. I thought at first that getting the Green Pass would be an easy procedure, as I'd had the MTA account for over 16 years and was used to managing all transactions and requests on line. But when I checked on the website last November I found that I needed either a Port Authority or Thruway account for the Green Pass. I emailed E-ZPass MTA support, and they told me all I had to do was either:

"Open a second E-ZPass account with the New York State Thruway or the Port Authority of NY and NJ (or)
"Close your current account and re-open an E-ZPass account with either of the two mentioned authorities."

I tried opening a second account on line, but the system told me that my vehicle registration was already on another account and it would not let me proceed. I called support and they said that I could only do this by mail or at one of the local walk-in centers. As I was going to be passing through Staten Island a few days later I decided to visit the walk-in center there. Since the email was so explicit in giving the options I thought this would be simple, but it actually took over 45 minutes from the time I first spoke to the counter service agent until I had the Thruway account set up.

Despite the instructions in the email to "open a second E-ZPass account", the counter agent told me this was not possible. His supervisor said the same thing, even after I showed him the original email from support, but eventually agreed that I could close my MTA account and open a Thruway account. I had already filled out a printed application which they had mailed to me a few days earlier, and when the supervisor looked at this he told me that my Long Island zip code did not qualify for a Thruway account and that they could do nothing for me at that office.

I now began to get a little irritated, and after consultation with yet another staff member, the supervisor said that they could open a Thruway account for me, but only by entering a fake zip code then changing it to the correct one after the account was set up. He also told me that the form I had filled out (which I had just received in the mail) was obsolete, and that I needed to fill out a new application.

By this time I was ready to do anything to get out of there, so I filled out the new form and finally was issued with standard Thruway tags so I could continue my trip. I was not surprised to learn from the counter clerk that they did not keep the green tags there.

So now I had to apply for the NYGREEN plan from the Thruway authority and get them to send me the green tag. I mailed in a request on November 18th to add this plan to my account, enclosing a copy of my registration as specified on the Thruway website. When I hadn't heard anything after almost two weeks I emailed Thruway Customer Service, and (as I noted in my previous post) they advised me to call the E-ZPass Operations office.

The service rep there was very courteous and professional, and seemed determined to resolve my issue. She brought up my account on her computer and told me there was some odd reason why my request hadn't been processed, but that she had no details at that point. She promised to check further into it, and when I spoke to her again the next day she told me that there had been a problem reading my plate number from the registration photocopy that I had mailed in. This seemed a little odd, as I had sent a clean photocopy, but she said that if I emailed her a scan of the registration she would get it taken care of. I sent her the scan, and my green tag arrived on December 6th.

But I wasn't done yet.


From what I'd read here, I assumed that once I had the green tag I would automatically get the discount wherever it was available. I didn't have occasion to use a Port Authority crossing until last week, and when I checked my account on line I found that the discount hadn't been applied. As I noted at the beginning of this post, I have now learned that once you have a green pass on your account from one authority, you also have to request the other one to add their green pass.

At this point I feel like I should be making more use of the system to get some value from all this.

 

What a nightmare, I own the Green EZ-pass from the Port Authority pass(edit: MTA) since many years, but now I will hesitate to apply for the Thruway one, probably to be use once a year. Certainly I'm not making back my money's worth for the monthly maintenance fee.

edit:Port Authority pass (instead of MTA)

 

I figured once I got started I had to keep going...

If you already have the Port Authority pass (I assume that's what you meant since MTA doesn't offer this plan) it should be simple to add the Thruway to your existing account. Sign in to your account on line, then click on the ASK US! link at the top of the screen and send them a request to add the NYGREEN plan to your account.

It took them about three business days to respond to my request to add PAGREEN once I had NYGREEN on my account.

 

You are encourage me, I will give it a try in the near future.

 

i went to local ez-pass service center few days ago (whitestone expressway queens) to acquire green pass.
the lady whom helped me was very informative, and had me write out a letter on the spot requesting NY thruway EZ-pass & port authority pass. She says I will be registered under NY thruway with port authority enabled, this way there is no monthly fee. great people, great help.

 

A lot better than the Staten Island service center! I was going to go to the one in Queens, but we were visiting friends in New Jersey and passing within a half mile of the Staten Island center on the way, so I went there instead. My mistake!

 

i went to local ez-pass service center few days ago (whitestone expressway queens) to acquire green pass.
the lady whom helped me was very informative, and had me write out a letter on the spot requesting NY thruway EZ-pass & port authority pass. She says I will be registered under NY thruway with port authority enabled, this way there is no monthly fee. great people, great help.

Read more: http://priuschat.com/threads/nys-thruway-ez-pass-has-a-green-pass.117102/page-3#ixzz2IqvM8sfr

Please let us know after you receive the NYT Green pass and use it. Lets see if you will receive your user's discounts under both entities.
I had been paying a $1.00 monthly fee for months without satisfaction to the Port Authority.
Thank you

 

why don't you cancel green pass program if your not saving?

 

I might do that

 

I got there on a Saturday morning about 10:30 and the place was almost empty. By the time I was done the line was out the door. But it wasn't the wait, it was the general incompetence, compared with what raimix experienced at the Queens center - see my detailed post above.

 

I think I know the answer to this question, but someone asked me today, so I thought I would post it. I work with someone who lives in NJ but works on Long Island. He was wondering that if he got a Prius HB, could he get an HOV sticker, since he would register the car in NJ?

 

From what I have heard, NO. You have to be NY resident.

 

Sorry, for NY residents only

 

Here's the Clean Pass website, which confirms you need NYS registration.

 

I got my NY State Thruway Green EZPass and it's actually Green.

I had the White Standard EZPass, faxed to them my PIP Registration and a request to upgrade the Standard tag to a Green tag. They mailed me the Green transponder, that's now in the car.

On the EZPass website, my car now shows it has both the Standard tag and Green tag.
Their Customer Service says that's normal.

 

If you ever need to use the Port Authority crossings (GW Bridge, etc.), you can add their Green Pass (PAGREEN) at no charge just by emailing support and requesting it (which is what I did) - it uses the same tag as the Thruway. You have to travel off-peak to get the discount, and they have an odd idea of what off-peak is, but I'm in New Jersey at least once a month and come back over the GW Bridge to Long Island after 8pm, and the Green Pass reduces the toll from $8.25 to $4.75.

 

Yayyy.... that's a discount!!!!! for being NY state