Fair Fares, the NYC program offering half-priced subway and bus rides low-income public transit users, is now fully available on OMNY, the MTA’s contactless fare system, the Mayor’s office announced on Wednesday.
The transition to OMNY will allow the program’s 360,000 participants to manage their transit funds. However, it also establishes fare capping, which ensures that riders will pay no more than $17 per week to use the transit system with a Fair Fares-issued OMNY card.
This is the second milestone for the discount program this year. On Jan. 13, NYC increased income eligibility for Fair Fares from 120% to 145% of the federal poverty level. That expansion added about 200,000 more New Yorkers to the half-priced fare program.
The discount will be available on Fair Fares-issued OMNY Cards as part of the first step in the payment transition. New program enrollees will receive a Fair Fares OMNY Card, instead of a MetroCard, and will immediately be able to use it after loading it with money. Participants can add money to their cards at any OMNY vending machine or call customer service at 877-789-6669.
Those currently enrolled can request an OMNY card through Access HRA or wait to receive one when they renew their enrollment.
Going forward, participants will be able to apply their Fair Fares discount to preexisting OMNY cards, bank cards or smartphones
“New York City’s public transit system is the lifeblood of our city, serving New Yorkers all across the five boroughs,” Mayor Eric Adams said. “By bringing our world-class Fair Fares program onto the MTA’s digital OMNY system, we are making it even easier for working-class New Yorkers to access discounted rides on our trains and on our busses.”
Molly Wasow Park, commissioner of NYC’s Department of Social Services, said the new fare cap will help Fair Fares participants save more money.
“It is imperative that the city’s subways, buses, and paratransit services are affordable to all New Yorkers, and the transition of Fair Fares to OMNY, coupled with the recent income eligibility expansion, will contribute significantly to our efforts to advance transit equity by not only making more New Yorkers eligible for half-priced fares but making it easier than ever to manage transit costs and save even more with fare capping,” Wasow Park said.
Fair Fares is only available to New York adults up to age 64.
Brian Fritsch, associate director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, applauded OMNY’s rollout of the discount program. However, he said more still needs to be done to help low-income and minimum-wage earning public transit users in the city.
“With OMNY fully rolling out to Fair Fares, low-income riders will finally be able to take advantage of fare capping, another key tool for keeping fares low for dedicated riders,” he said. “While Fair Fares is a crucial program that brings half fare transit to riders making under 145% of the federal poverty level, we continue to call for the program’s eligibility threshold to be raised to 200% and to the LIRR and Metro-North within New York City, so riders—including hundreds of thousands of minimum wage workers—can take advantage of the fastest mode of transit available to them.”
