Advocates make last-minute push to expand NYC’s half-priced MetroCard program

As the city’s budget deadline approaches, transit advocates and members of the City Council are making a last-minute push to expand funding for “Fair Fares,” a program that gives half-priced MetroCards to low-income New Yorkers.

Advocates gathered outside City Hall on Wednesday to demand that the mayor agree to increase the program’s income requirements — and therefore its budget. They set up a table with a cardboard cutout of Mayor Eric Adams, and held an oversized MetroCard with the words “Mayor Adams cut the fare” next to a giant pair of scissors.

“The city is in an affordability crisis and I think everyone knows its time to give people cuts in terms of costs where we can and when we can,” said Caitlin Pearce, deputy director at the advocacy group Riders Alliance.

City data shows roughly 290,000 people who live at or below the federal poverty line are currently enrolled in the program. The proposal would double that threshold, allowing any New Yorker with an income of double the federal poverty line eligible.

The change would cost $60 million and would allow nearly 1 million New Yorkers to qualify for the discounts, according to advocates.

Riders Alliance sent a letter signed by 29 councilmembers to the mayor on Tuesday, calling for the money to be included in the budget, which is required to be passed by the Council and signed by the mayor by Saturday.

“Fair Fares is not living up to its full potential,” the letter said. “We have a moral responsibility to make this essential program available to hundreds of thousands of low-income working families who badly need the savings.”

Adams’ spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said the mayor is considering whether the expansion of Fair Fares eligibility “can be made through the budget process.”