New York City students can ride subways, buses for free year-round under new program
Eligible city students will be given OMNY cards that can be used for up to four free subway or bus rides a day, including when school isn’t in session. Credit: Bloomberg/Jeff Bachner
New York City school students will be able to ride buses and subways for free year-round under a new plan announced by MTA and city officials Thursday.
As the Metropolitan Transportation Authority moves closer to retiring its 30-year-old MetroCard, beginning September, eligible city students who previously would have been issued free fare cards to be used during school days will instead be given OMNY cards that can be used for up to four free subway or bus rides a day, including when school isn’t in session.
Student MetroCards previously limited travel to weekdays between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.
“These new cards are valid — this is different — 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, including the summers,” MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said at a Brooklyn news conference, where he was accompanied by New York City Mayor Eric Adams and students from Transit Tech Career and Technical Education High School. “We want to make sure that kids who are doing internships, who are getting out to get experience and use the city, have the benefits of the transit system.”
The program is for students in kindergarten through 12th grade and includes some restrictions, including factors such as the distance between home and school.
Funding for the program is coming from a $25 million appropriation from the state and an increase in annual student fare contributions from the city from $45 million to $50.5 million.
Transit Tech student Malik Innis said that as a student athlete, he routinely competes in sports for his school on Saturdays and Sundays, “and not having the ability to travel for free, it kind of hurts sometimes.”
“I will be able to make my Sunday football games,” said Innis, who noted that the three free rides per day guaranteed with student MetroCards was “just not enough” on some days.
“That one extra time will get me that last trip to get home,” he said.
Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.
'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.
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