Nearly 1 million low-income New Yorkers would get free subway and bus rides under a budget proposal announced by the City Council on Wednesday.
Council Speaker Julie Menin said the legislative body wants to expand a city-run program called “Fair Fares,” which currently offers half-priced New York City transit rides to residents making less than 150% of the federal poverty line, or about $22,600 a year for a one-person household. Menin said she wants to amend the program to cover the full cost of those rides.
“Fair Fares has been a lifeline for working New Yorkers, providing eligible riders with discounted access to one of our city’s greatest assets: our transit system,” Menin wrote in a statement. “The Council is making a significant Fair Fares expansion among our top priorities in a budget that is fiscally responsible and invests directly in New Yorkers."
The proposal differs from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign promise to eliminate fares from all of the city’s buses. Instead of giving everyone free bus rides, the Council’s plan would help only the city’s poorest residents — but also give those people free subway rides.
On the mayoral campaign trail last year, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed the idea of expanding the program to fully cover subway and bus rides for low-income people. It was a rebuttal to Mamdani’s plan, which Cuomo criticized as a move that would subsidize the rich.
Mamdani on Wednesday criticized the Council’s overall budget proposal, which argued the city could close a budget gap of more than $5 billion without cutting services or raising taxes. The mayor has called for the state to increase taxes on wealthy residents.
“Any proposal that claims we can close this gap without significant new revenue is unrealistic,” Mamdani wrote in a statement.
The city’s current budget allocates $121 million to Fair Fares. Menin’s office did not provide an estimate for how much the program’s expansion would cost.
Jeremy Edwards, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office, declined to answer questions about the Council’s plan to make subways and buses free for low-income riders and pointed to Mamdani’s statement denouncing the Council’s budget proposal.
According to the city, more than 370,000 New Yorkers are enrolled in Fair Fares, which was first launched under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. The Community Service Society of New York, which helped create the program, estimates nearly 1 million people are eligible for the program, and MTA officials have said enrolling more people would help reduce fare evasion.
“Automatic free bus, subway and paratransit for 1 million New Yorkers would transform how people get around,” said Danny Pearlstein, spokesperson for the transit advocacy group Riders Alliance. He also said his group is calling on the city to increase the income limit for Fair Fares to 300% of the federal poverty line.
