At last! The Fair Fares program will soon be extended to include qualifying student veterans, to finally fulfill a promise included in the NYC budget announced in June 2018. The measure was originally mandated to go into effect on January 1, 2019, to provide half-price MetroCards for more than 12,000 veterans enrolled in NYC colleges. Following months of delay, we have learned from the city that this will at last be implemented as follows: 

About: Student veterans will get early access to the Fair Fares MetroCard benefit in October 2019 before the program becomes more broadly available to the public starting in January 2020.

Outreach: The NYC Department of Veterans' Services (DVS) has provided information to school administrators on how they can help their students sign up for the program. 

Eligibility: Those who are eligible must be living at or below the federal poverty line, or have a household income of about $25,000.

Are you one of NYC's 12,000 student veterans with a question about how you can get a half-price MetroCard this October? Contact your school administrator, or apply by contacting [email protected]

We will post updates as more information becomes available.