An expansion towards the New York City Fair Fares program has been announced following the recent successful conclusion of a budget deal. The 125.8 billion spending plan was finalized Tuesday morning with City Council Speaker Julie Menin and NYC mayor Zohran Mamdano ahead of the deadline for the city budget. The budget is set to be voted on later today by the City Council.
“This is the largest expansion of Fair Fares in council history,” said Speaker Menin at the City Hall news conference. “Specifically, that means for nearly 1.3 million working New Yorkers, we are making public transit more affordable. These are New Yorkers who rely on subway, buses, and paratransit to get to work in the morning. To make it to school on time. To access all kinds of opportunities.”
The Fair Fares NYC program was launched in 2019, focusing on helping low-income city residents reduce their daily commute costs through half-priced subway, bus, and paratransit trips. According to the office of Speaker Menin, this new budget will make an additional 340,000 New Yorkers eligible for the program.
Specifically, New Yorkers who make annually individuals $31,920 and families of four making up to $66,000 annually are qualified for the program. Overall, around 1.3 million will now be able to make use of the Fair Fares program.
According to Mamdani, this budget deal is in line with his long-publicized vision of making the buses within New York City free for all of its citizens.
