Press Release
CSS Report: Mass transit costs still a major financial burden for low-income New Yorkers as Fair Fares Program is yet to reach full potential
Organization highlights transit affordability burden in New York City and calls on city leadership to fully restore funding for the Fair Fares Program to ensure mass transit is a path toward economic opportunity, not a barrier
Fair Fares NYC, a program that provides half-priced subway and bus fares for New York City residents living at or below the federal poverty level, is a critical transit lifeline for New Yorkers struggling to get to work, school and essential appointments.
The Community Service Society’s new report, Mass Transit as an Economic Equalizer: The Case for Expanding and Investing in Fair Fares, found that many New Yorkers eligible for Fair Fares still weren’t aware of the program a year and a half after its full rollout. Nearly half of eligible respondents in our 2021 Unheard Third survey said that they had not applied for the program and 14 percent did not know how to apply. The report also found that transit affordability remains a formidable barrier for economic opportunity, particularly for New Yorkers living in poverty, New Yorkers of color and Bronx residents – the borough with the city’s highest poverty rate.
Enrollment in Fair Fares has also not kept up with the recovery in subway ridership; between March and December 2021, subway ridership increased by 125 percent, but Fair Fares enrollment increased by just 14 percent over the same time period.
As the city slowly rebounds from the pandemic’s devastating economic toll, the need for Fair Fares will only continue to grow.
“Our mass transit system can be our city’s great economic equalizer,” said David R. Jones, President and CEO of Community Service Society.” But if people remain unaware of their right to Fair Fares, the program’s potential impact as a powerful poverty-fighting tool will be diminished.”
CSS’ latest report also provides a number of recommendations to address transit affordability, notably by increasing funding for the Fair Fares program and ensure eligible New Yorkers with the highest need are aware of its existence and enrolled via a more aggressive media and community outreach. CSS also strongly recommends institutionalizing the program in the city council budget and expanding Fair Fares eligibility to cover more New Yorkers who need it, specifically from 100 percent or 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Line.
"In a few short years, Fair Fares has improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers," said Riders Alliance Executive Director Betsy Plum. "With enhanced eligibility, funding, and promotion, Fair Fares could be a game changer for millions of families across the city. As we look to our Covid recovery, this is the powerful investment we need. Thanks to our partners at Community Service Society for producing this groundbreaking progress report. We look forward to joining forces again and broadening our coalition further to win the affordable transit that will help drive an equitable recovery for New York."
CSS commends the City Council and the Mayor for their commitment to fund this critical program in the budget, and its commitment to making it a permanent budget line item going forward.
“By making transit affordable, we would be investing in the people of New York,” said Debipriya Chatterjee, Senior Economist and co-author on the report, “by enabling them to seek out jobs and training opportunities away from their homes and thus supercharging the city’s recovery.”
Low-income communities of color have already taken economic blow after blow from the covid-19 pandemic, said Emerita Torres, Vice President of Policy, Research and Advocacy and co-author of the report. “We cannot allow for mass transit to be a barrier for opportunities when it should serve as a gateway. “
“Fair Fares is connecting New Yorkers in poverty to economic opportunity but our Unheard Third findings show that we can do more to ensure that eligible New Yorkers are enrolling into Fair Fares,” said Irene Lew, Policy Analyst at CSS and co-author of the report. “We can’t have an equitable recovery without investing in transit affordability.”