Half-price fares for low-income New Yorkers
On June 11, 2018, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson reached a deal to include full funding for Fair Fares in the city budget. After launching in January 2019 to provide half-priced subway and bus fares to New Yorkers with income below the federal poverty level (FPL), the program proved to be a huge success. The city has continued to build on it with expansions in 2023 and 2025, and New Yorkers earning up to 150% of FPL are now eligible.
The fight for Fair Fares began when data from CSS’s 2015 Unheard Third survey revealed that one in three low-income New Yorkers couldn’t afford subway or bus fare, with a disproportionate effect on low-income blacks and Latinos. This finding led to an in-depth investigation by CSS analysts Harold Stolper and Nancy Rankin, which showed that the high cost of fares was preventing low-income New Yorkers from meeting basic needs, like receiving medical care or taking a job further from home.
The campaign, co-led with Riders Alliance, concluded with the city allocating $106 million in the FY19 budget for the Fair Fares program, which will be available to about 800,000 New York City adults who live at or below the poverty line and do not already qualify for the half-fare for seniors and persons with disabilities. Those who enroll in the program are expected to save upwards of $700 per year in transportation expenses.
Roughly 380,000 New Yorkers are enrolled in the Fair Fares program as of April 2026. According to data from the CSS's 2025 Annual Survey of Housing and Economic Security, 81% of Fair Fares enrollees say that discounted fares help them afford other essentials like housing, utilities, or food.
CSS thanks Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Johnson for making Fair Fares a reality and Riders Alliance for championing this campaign alongside CSS.
The timeline below covers our advocacy efforts to create the Fair Fares program, beginning with our research findings in 2015 and culminating with the program’s creation in 2018.