Press Release

Statement: Fair Fares Coalition Applauds Speaker and City Council for Supporting Reduced Transit Fare Proposal in City Budget Response

In response to the City Council’s inclusion of Fair Fares in its official budget response, Fair Fares Campaign Co-Chairs Community Service Society and Riders Alliance released the following statement:

“City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Finance Chair Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, Transportation Chair Ydanis Rodriguez and the members of the New York City Council have taken a major step towards ensuring that low-income New Yorkers will be able to afford essential access to our bus and subway system by including support for Fair Fares in their response to the Mayor's preliminary executive budget.

“On behalf of our broad coalition of economic justice, transit, labor, faith and criminal justice groups, we thank the Council for their leadership. And we look forward to working with the Council and the de Blasio Administration in the weeks ahead in coming up with a plan to phase in half-price fares starting in FY2018.”

The Fair Fares proposal is included on page 31 of the City Council Response to the Mayor’s Fiscal 2018 Preliminary Budget, available here.

For more than 170 years, the Community Service Society of New York has been the leading voice on behalf of low-income New Yorkers and continues to advocate for the economic security of the working poor in the nation’s largest city. We respond to urgent, contemporary challenges with applied research, advocacy, litigation and innovative program models that help the working poor achieve a better quality of life and promote a more prosperous city.

 The Riders Alliance is a grassroots organization of subway and bus riders pushing for better service at affordable fares and a stronger public investment in mass transit. Visit us at ridersny.org.

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