NYC School Kids Will Have Access to Free Subway Rides 24/7 Starting in September

Going to school via mass transit is going to get a whole lot easier for students starting in September.

Mayor Eric Adams, Schools Chancellor David Banks, and MTA Chair & CEO Janno Lieber announced on July 25 that starting in the 2024-2025 school year, students will be issued new green student OMNY cards, replacing the yellow MetroCards that have been in use since 1997. The new student OMNY cards will offer 24/7 access, allowing up to four free rides daily throughout the entire year.

Authorities say that the upgrade will enhance travel flexibility for students, who were previously restricted to three free rides per day between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. and could only use their MetroCards on days when public school was in session. That meant no weekends, when many schools held after school sports and theatrical events. The old card was also not valid on public school holidays and vacation periods.

That created problems with other school systems that did not follow the same holiday and vacation schedule as the public school calendar.

The new initiative was the result of a focus group collaboration between MTA and New York City Public School high school students that studied the transport system’s “crisis level” of fare evasion.

“These are tough economic times. It’s challenging for families to come up with the dollars that are needed to move around in this city. When you put a focus group together that includes young people, you can get real feedback on what can prevent fare evasion,” Mayor Eric Adams said during a press conference with MTA boss Janno Lieber.

Adams continued, “When it comes down to students, they’re doing it (evading fares) out of necessity or they are trying to get to school, they’re trying to pick up their niece and nephew or their sibling, and they just don’t have the money to do so.”

Fare evasion cost the MTA nearly $700 million last year, though it’s not clear how many of those jumping the turnstiles were students.

Transit Tech student Subah Habib said she needs more daily swipes to get to and from running track and after-school programs.

“I run track, and getting to our track meets on Saturdays, and going to track on the days that are out of the MetroCard restriction is very important. We’re not able to do that with the regular MetroCard, but with the OMNY card, it’s time-efficient and cost-efficient,” Habib said, speaking at Adam’s press conference on July 25th.

A former high school student, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Straus News that it was inconvenient for him to return home to Manhattan after soccer practice while attending Archbishop Molloy in Queens a couple of years ago under the old student MetroCards system.

“The student MetroCards were only valid until 8:30 p.m., and our practice often ran late,” he recalled. “By the time I traveled home, it would be quite late, and I would either have to plead with the transit officer to let me go for free or, if there was no officer around, I would jump the turnstile.”

Adams estimated the new program would help save students up to $1,000 per month during the summer and $80 per month during the school year in subway fares.

“That is a significant amount of money when you’re talking about collecting, how you’re going to pay for lunch money, how you’re going to get the basic things that a family needs,” Adams said.

“When you are a student you have to use your MetroCard or your OMNY card to pick up your siblings. You have to use your OMNY card to go to an appointment somewhere, a medical appointment, or go to the library in your community,” he said.

Authorities said that students can use these new OMNY cards on the subway, on the local and limited MTA buses, the Staten Island Railway, the Roosevelt Island Tram, and even the Hudson Rail Link, which connects to some of the Metro North stations in the Bronx.