NYC's 'Fair Fares' low-income transit discounts now available on OMNY cards

Low-income New Yorkers who get half-price transit rides through the city’s Fair Fares program are no longer stuck with a MetroCard to use their discount.

City officials on Wednesday announced the roughly 364,000 people enrolled in the program can now receive tap-to-pay OMNY. Unlike the old vinyl swipe cards, riders can reload the plastic OMNY cards online.

“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 buses,” Mayor Eric Adams wrote in a statement.

City officials said new Fair Fares enrollees will automatically be issued a discounted OMNY card. Those already in the program can request a new card through the city’s website. Similar to the MetroCards currently distributed through the program, the Fair Fares OMNY cards reduce the cost of a single subway ride from $2.90 to $1.45.

Fair Fares is one of the city’s last transit discount programs to move over to OMNY. The MTA rolled out the digital tap cards to public school students and seniors last year.

The Fair Fares program was launched in 2019 through legislation passed by the City Council and former Mayor Bill de Blasio. The measure requires the city to reimburse the MTA for the discounts, and was initially available to those below the federal poverty level.

In 2023, lawmakers increase the program's income requirements to 120% of the poverty level. Last year, the Council and mayor passed another bill that opens the discount to New Yorkers earning up to 145% of the federal poverty level, or about $22,000 a year for single people. The city estimated last year's change made the discount available to 200,000 more people.

The Department of Social Services plans to spend $2 million on an advertising campaign to raise awareness about the program.

The conversion of Fair Fares to OMNY is the latest step in the MTA’s long-delayed push to retire the MetroCard. When the MTA first signed a contract to implement the tap-to-pay system in 2017, transit officials planned to kill the subway swipe in 2023. That timeline was pushed back due to the pandemic as well as delayed deliveries of OMNY card vending machines that allow riders to pay their fares with cash.

An MTA consultant in December estimated the work to fully roll out OMNY won’t be finished until the end of 2026.