{"id":567532,"date":"2026-02-05T07:07:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T07:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/567532\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T07:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T07:07:17","slug":"new-transit-coalition-wants-mayor-mamdani-to-put-pedal-to-the-metal-on-expanding-fair-fares-benefits-making-buses-fare-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/567532\/","title":{"rendered":"New transit coalition wants Mayor Mamdani to put pedal to the metal on expanding \u2018Fair Fares\u2019 benefits, making buses fare-free"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Transit\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Riders Alliance Senior Organizer Danna Dennis speaking as a group of advocates rally for more accessible and reliable public transit. Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026.<\/p>\n

Photo by Ethan Stark-Miller<\/p>\n

A newly-formed coalition of advocates took to the City Hall steps on Wednesday, demanding that Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the City Council take immediate action to make the Big Apple\u2019s subways and buses cheaper and faster, including by doubling the size of its half-fare program.<\/p>\n

The collective \u2014 dubbing itself the \u201cRiders for Affordable Transit\u201d coalition \u2014 made three central asks during a rally on \u201cTransit Equity Day,\u201d which honors the birthday of civil rights icon Rosa Parks.<\/p>\n

Topping their wish list is a call to dramatically expand eligibility for the city\u2019s half-fare program \u2014 Fair Fares<\/a> \u2014 along with\u00a0speeding up bus and paratransit service, and making all bus and paratransit rides free.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that transit is reliable, we want to make sure that folks can get to and from on time,\u201d said Danna Dennis, a senior organizer with the group Riders Alliance.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that it\u2019s accessible,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe definitely need more elevators, more ramps. And when we talk about access, we\u2019re talking about money, because a lot of us New Yorkers are struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coalition includes groups such as Riders Alliance, Vocal New York, the Community Service Society, and the Permanent Citizens Advisory Council to the MTA (PCAC). It is seeking to build on momentum from Mamdani\u2019s victory<\/a> powered by a platform that centered a proposal to make city buses fast and free<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"peopleA commuter paying the fare while passing through a new subway gate at the 23rd Street-Baruch College station on Jan. 23, 2026.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

Many speakers at the rally emphasized the coalition\u2019s demand to expand Fair Fares eligibility, which currently sits at or below 145% of the federal poverty level<\/a>. Growing the program is perhaps the most attainable of the group\u2019s three demands, as it could be done this city budget cycle and does not require approval from Albany leaders.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the group called for a revamped Fair Fares program that offers free, rather than reduced, rides to New Yorkers making up to 150% of the federal poverty level. They also want the city to offer the half-fare benefit to those making between 150% and 300% of that threshold.<\/p>\n

Kara Gurl, planning and advocacy manager at PCAC, said increasing the limit by 155% would roughly double the number of riders eligible for the program to around 2 million.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, far too few riders are enrolled,\u201d Gurl said. \u201cBy expanding Fair Fares to 300% of the federal poverty level, about 30% of New Yorkers could finally benefit from half-fare transit. That\u2019s over 1 million more riders than are eligible today.\u201d<\/p>\n

While former Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council have widened eligibility for Fair Fares in recent years, the increases have consistently fallen short of advocates\u2019 previous demand to make the program available to those earning 200% of the federal poverty level.<\/p>\n

The group said the city should also automatically enroll all New Yorkers who receive other public benefits it distributes, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), in Fair Fares.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [people] are eligible, they need to be automatically enrolled, instead of having to find out on their own, or, in some cases, not at all,\u201d said Vocal New York Chair Reginald Thomas Brown.<\/p>\n

In response to the demand, Mamdani spokesperson Sam Raskin said the mayor\u2019s office is \u201creviewing\u201d the proposal while contending with a $12 billion budget gap<\/a> it says Adams\u2019 administration left.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration is reviewing the Fair Fares proposals, as we work to close the $12 billion Adams Budget Crisis caused by years of underbudgeting essential services,\u201d Raskin said. \u201cThe Mayor shares the advocates\u2019 goals of making public transit fast, reliable, and affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Council Speaker Julie Menin\u2019s spokesperson Jack Lobel did not provide a comment specifically responding to the coalition\u2019s ask, but instead pointed to comments she made in support of expanding the program last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in the Council have been very supportive of Fair Fares,\u201d Menin said at the time. \u201cThat\u2019s something we\u2019re extremely supportive of. I\u2019d love to look at whether or not we can expand it so we can make the fares free and reduced for more New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Riders Alliance Senior Organizer Danna Dennis speaking as a group of advocates rally for more accessible and reliable…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":567533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5310,247170,116277,221265,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,46352,247171,13846,247172,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-567532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-city-council","tag-danna-dennis","tag-fair-fares","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-pcac","tag-reginald-thomas-brown","tag-riders-alliance","tag-riders-for-affordable-transit","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116016765059341062","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}