New York City’s 1.1 million public school students will receive free OMNY cards to tap into the transit system on their way to class next year, replacing the student MetroCards they’ve used to get on a subway or bus since 1997.
Not only will the green MetroCards be replaced by green OMNY cards, but the cards’ benefits for students are set to be significantly expanded as well, Mayor Eric Adams and MTA chief executive Janno Lieber announced Thursday.
OMNY cardholders will be able to take four free rides on mass transit per day, up from three with student MetroCards, and the cards will be active 24/7 every day of the year, rather than from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on school days only.
“We want to make sure that kids who are doing internships, who are getting out to get experience and use the city, have the benefit of the transit system, and they’re getting four free rides per day,” Lieber said at a press conference in the Transit Tech High School in Brooklyn. “It used to be only three and it was constrained by hours. Now it’s four free rides a day and 24 hours a day.”
Transit Tech student-athlete Malik Innis, for one, said the expanded number of trips will help him pursue athletics.
“I’m a student-athlete, so we have games on Sundays and Saturdays, and not having the ability to travel for free, it hurts sometimes because as a full-time student, I don’t always have the ability to participate in internships and work,” said Innis. “Using an OMNY card would give me the ability to tap and go. It will be more efficient, and I will be able to make my Sunday football games.”
The cards will be accepted not just on MTA subways and buses, but also on the Staten Island Railway, the Roosevelt Island Tram, and the Hudson Rail Link bus service that feeds into Metro-North.
The MTA fully installed the contactless OMNY payment system on all subway turnstiles and buses by the end of 2020, but for years has struggled to spur New Yorkers to make the switch from the old yellow trooper to the payment method of the future. The MTA previously intended to phase out the MetroCard in 2023, but the retirement has since been postponed indefinitely.
Integrating the MTA’s various discounts into OMNY has been one of the primary obstacles to the transition, the agency has said. Discounts for seniors, disabled riders, and those with low incomes are now fully compatible with OMNY, but those groups are still far less likely to use contactless payment than their full-fare brethren. Overall, more than 50% of subway riders are now using OMNY, Lieber said Thursday.
Students will not be able to simply tap their phones to the OMNY readers to pay like typical riders this coming school year, but Lieber said he expects the student benefit will be available through their phones — which, unlike cards, they tend not to lose — by the 2025-26 school year.
