MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber
Marc A. Hermann / MTA
Another huge win for the affordability agenda: after reaching an agreement with the Mayor’s office, the City Council is raising the eligibility threshold for Fair Fares, the municipal program offering half-priced OMNY cards to low-income New Yorkers.
Previously, folks working 40 hours a week for minimum wage didn’t qualify. That’s changing now, and we at the MTA are thrilled.
We’ve been advocating for expansion for years, including in op-eds in this paper dating as far back as 2022, the year I was confirmed as Chair and CEO. More recently, we’ve published a Policy Brief on the issue and even testified to its importance at a City Council hearing in May.
We said then that targeted expansion of Fair Fares is the best way to broaden access to our already-affordable transit system. Thanks to our vast network, New Yorkers pay less for transportation than almost anywhere else in the country. There’s no need to spend thousands of dollars buying, insuring, and maintaining a car — a single tap is all you need to get around New York City.
But we know many people still need help paying the fare, and that’s where Fair Fares comes in. At $1.50 a ride, participants are paying about 45% less per trip today than they did a decade ago, before Fair Fares started, a rare expense in this City that’s gotten cheaper over time.
Now that the eligibility threshold is being raised considerably, our Customer team is ready to do whatever we can to help drive enrollment, which has historically increased with every expansion.
We already advertise Fair Fares heavily on digital screens on buses and at 30 Customer Service Centers systemwide. Self-service iPad kiosks are available at all locations 24 hours a day, seven days a week for easy enrollment. Outreach events are also held monthly at Coney Island-Stillwell Av in Brooklyn, Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Av/74 St in Queens, 125 St in Manhattan, and 161 St-Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
If there’s more we can do, we want to hear about it. New York works best when opportunity is within everyone’s reach. That’s what mass transit provides, and we look forward to working with the City to execute this expansion for maximum benefit to all riders, including those earning minimum wage, who will qualify for the first time.
Janno Lieber is MTA chair and CEO.