Transcript: Mayor Adams, Chancellor Banks, MTA Chair & Ceo Lieber Launch Expanded Student OMNY Cards

July 25, 2024

Janno Lieber, Chair and CEO, Metropolitan Transportation Authority: More important, we have the mayor. I'm Janno Lieber, the chair and CEO of the MTA. I'm thrilled to be here back at a place that's a second home for many of us at MTA, Transit Tech High School, where we are training the transit professionals of the future. It's a great partnership between the MTA and the New York City Public School System that we cherish. We thank everybody who's been involved with making this such a successful institution. 

We are joined by a couple of really important folks, not just the mayor of the City of New York, but also a couple of transit tech students who are going to speak, Malik Innis, Subah Habib. Great kids, I just got a chance to talk to them. Also elected officials who are a little more grown up in many ways, Harvey Epstein, the assembly member who's been deeply involved with some of these issues. Selvena Brooks-Powers, City Council member and chair of the City Council's Transportation Committee as well. 

The folks who are in charge of this institution, Marlon Bynum, the principal of Transit Tech. Marlon, where are you? Great to be with you. Tyquan Ward, who is the assistant principal, where is Tyquan? Tyquan, back there taking photos. Thank you, thank you so much for being here. I'm going to do a short intro and then we're going to hear from the mayor. As I said, welcome everybody for this announcement at the Transit Tech High School. I'm, of course, I am thrilled to be joined also by, is the chief operating officer of New York City Public School System – there you are, thank you. Emma Vadehra is with us and so many others who I've already identified. 

Listen, what we're here to celebrate is that there are new student OMNY cards being distributed right in the next couple of weeks to schools. We're going to get them to the kids so they're ready for the new year. These new cards are valid, this is different, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, so including the summers. We want to make sure that kids who are doing internships, who are getting out to get experience and use the city, have the benefit of the transit system, and they're getting four free rides per day. It used to be only three and it was constrained by hours. Now it's four free rides a day and 24 hours a day. 

How do we make these decisions? We did a focus group, thanks to Chancellor David Banks, we did a focus group with New York City Public School high school students about fare payment and fare evasion. We learned a lot and we're taking action. You can use these new OMNY cards on the subway, on the local and limited buses, all the buses, Staten Island Railway, the Roosevelt Island Tram, and even the Hudson Rail Link, that connector to some of the Metro North stations in the Bronx. 

New school years are starting fresh, and we're thrilled to be able to set students up for success in their careers and in their educational career with these new OMNY cards. With that, let me turn it over to the one and only mayor of the City of New York, Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you, thank you, thanks so much, Janno and the team here at Transit Tech. This is such an important school, because when you look at the turnover in transit-related jobs, we need to have the pipeline to ensure that our children are on track to successful, good-paying jobs, and make sure our trains stay running on time. 

As you see, the transit system has continued to evolve and improve, not only in the delivery of service, but as Janno and I partnered with the governor, we have been able to really tackle something that has impacted New Yorkers, and that is public safety on our transit system. When you really actualize that robberies are at the lowest level since we have started recording the robberies on our transit system, we see a steady decrease in crime after a slight uptick in January. We've witnessed how a collaboration between the governor, the MTA, and the NYPD hats off to all that are involved. 

How do we maintain, not only to have trains run on time, but our young people to get to and from their place of employment, their place of business? How do we get it on time? These are tough economic times. It's challenging for families to come up with the dollars that are needed to move around this city. When you put a focus group together that includes young people, you can get real feedback on what can prevent the fare evasion, what can prevent the challenges of moving forward, and that is what the announcement means today. 

This is a long way from the token, and technology allows us to improve on how our young people can move through the city, and these are real dollars. Over the 12 weeks through the summer, you can save up to almost close to $1,000. During the school year, it's about $20 a week due to math, that's $80 a month. That is a significant amount of money when you're talking about collecting, how you're going to pay for lunch money, how you're going to get the basic things that a family needs. 

We have an obligation in government to find ways to put money back into the pockets of everyday New Yorkers, and that is what we're doing. When you are a student, you have to use your MetroCard, your OMNY card to pick up your siblings. You have to use your OMNY card to go to maybe an appointment somewhere, a medical appointment, or go to the library in your community. This OMNY card plays a significant role, and it plays a significant role for family members. 

It's exciting to us, this new OMNY card, 365 days of the year that they can be used, 24 hours. A real huge win for all those who are going to receive this, and it's imperative. Every dollar you don't have to swipe, or what is this, touch now? You don't swipe anymore, right? Tap, every dollar you use to tap is a dollar that won't be tapped out of your pockets. We want to partner, and we want to really continue the things we're doing. We have both the assembly and the City Council here. Can not say enough about the partnership with the City Council. When we were able to expand Fair Fares for New York City, for half price subway and bus fares. Huge saving for low income New Yorkers. 

We also, this is why we budget $11 million for free MetroCards for some of youth employment, it's all part of the operation, and expanding our greenways. It's getting around the city. Expanding our greenways, allow those to have exercise and use our bikes and walk to get to where we're going in the city. Really great announcement, great school. 

When you think about what happens when our young people who leave here, they go on to be gainfully employed in an amazing industry. When you look at the head of the system now, he was just stating, he started out digging ditches. Now he's running a massive subway system. Right here is the next leader of the MTA and transit system coming through the pipeline that we have encouraged. Again, Janno, thank you. We spent so much time together these last few months doing some good stuff.

Lieber: The mayor always, the mayor said it all, and he always looks calm, cool, and collected even on a hot day, and I'm jealous about that. Listen, you mayor have been an amazing partner to MTA from day one. What you said about safety is true, and it ought to be conveyed regularly to New Yorkers. 

Transit, subway crime is dramatically down this year, and it is a huge story that we're not going to stop talking about. We had another great week last week, 20 percent down last week. We are now, oh thank you. I should take the suggestion not to wear a jacket, there you go. Listen, subway crime down last week, again, 20 percent, 8 percent down for the year. You said it all, mayor, but even more important, 12 percent down versus pre-COVID. Don't let the tabloid media or some of the other folks tell you that the subway is a dystopian hellscape. It is among the success stories under your administration. 

I also got to thank Governor Hochul, who is helping to fund this New York City school OMNY card program through the state. She's been a great supporter of what we're doing on all fronts, and I got to say thanks as well. Listen, as I said, you're going to have, as a new student OMNY card comes into play, you're going to have the flexibility to go anywhere all the time and to take advantage of everything that this city has to offer. 

The transition to OMNY is underway. We have not set a date when we're going to phase MetroCard out entirely. That date will be coming. Part of the reason that we're confident of that is we've passed 50 percent for the first time just recently. 50 percent of all the users of subway are actually using OMNY. All the users of bus and subway are using OMNY. That is a huge milestone and 1.7 billion total taps already. 

We've already launched pilots for selected paratransit customers, the pre-tax commuter benefits, those pre-tax value transit cards that people receive for their jobs. Fair Fares, the mayor talked about it, our Fair Fares, our 50 percent cost reduction customers, the low income folks, are getting OMNY, and there's just a wider rollout underway. We are making tremendous progress. Shout out to the MTA team who is making this all happen. This is very complicated. 

We saw the incredible work of a great technology team last week at the city, when we talked about that outage and how the city's services have resisted it. Same with the MTA, and the OMNY team is part of that leadership structure. Jessie Lazarus, Amy Linden, Tim Kaiser, many others. With that, I'm going to stop yammering and turn it over to folks who have important things to say, namely the students who are here at Transit Tech, Malik Innis and Subah Habib. Let's hear from them.

Malik Innis: I believe the OMNY cards would benefit me in all aspects, specifically when it comes to traveling on the weekends. I'm a student athlete, so we have games on Sundays and Saturdays, and not having the ability to travel for free, it hurts sometimes because as a full-time student, I don't always have the ability to participate in internships and work. When I do have the opportunity to work in internships, I have to travel all over the place, and I don't have the opportunity to travel on the bus and on the train because the MetroCards are only available from 5:30 to 8:30. 

Using an OMNY card would give me the ability to tap and go. It will be more efficient, and I will be able to make my Sunday football games. Also when it comes to traveling in the city, I have to transfer from the bus to the train, back to the train, to the bus, and only having the ability to use the card three times is just not enough. That one extra time would get me that last trip to get home. 

I also think it would, well for me, it's important because it's more sanitary. Just to tap and go and to catch that A train is very important and you got to get to work on time. Also the MetroCards, I have to swipe it two and three times. It just doesn't register. The tap and go, I know for sure it will work. I just feel like it will be better for a full-time student like me.

Subah Habib: Hi, my name is Subah Habib. I'm also a student at Transit Tech, CTE High School. I feel like the OMNY card is actually very beneficial for us high school students who do more than just high school outside of high school hours. We are students, we are daughters, we are sons, and we have a lot to attend to. 

I, myself, I am also a student athlete. I run track, and getting to our track meets on Saturdays, and going to track on the days that are out of the MetroCard restriction is very important. We're not able to do that with the regular MetroCard, but with the OMNY card, it's time efficient, cost efficient. It really helps us students travel from place to place. If New York is a city that never sleeps, then why should the MetroCard be limited to time hours? It should always be a 24 hour thing where students can really go to our extracurriculars, go to all these programs to really help our college apps.

I, myself, am a part of this program called SEO. It's an eight year program that takes us to and through to college. It's a program where I attend twice a week in the school year and six weeks in the summer. With the Metrocard, I don't have the convenience of getting there in the summer. I have to, but with the OMNY card I would be able to go there all the 365 days of the school year. I don't have to pay out of pocket to get from place to place. I feel like that is very beneficial to us as students to really flourish. To really flourish and not have to worry about costs, because I'm pretty sure we have a lot to worry about already. That's like the least of our worries right now, you know?

Lieber: Look out, world. Malik and Subah are coming. These are amazing kids. We're just proud to have them be part of the story of what we're trying to do to support New York City School students. Now we want to hear from a couple of elected officials who have been really active in this area. First, Harvey Epstein from the New York State Assembly. Harvey?

Assemblymember Harvey Epstein: Thank you. I want to thank Janno Lieber and the mayor for having this day. This is something that, for my neighborhood, it's been a long time coming. In 2019, my Youth Council started talking about the problems with MetroCards. 

First, we grappled with the half fare MetroCard. If people remember in 2019, about 130,000 New York City students had a half fare card, which meant they had to pay $1.35 in change twice a day to get to and from school if they lived within two miles from school. Luckily, back then, we were able to change that for 130,000 people. 

Then, in 2022, the Youth Council did a report that talked about, studied over 1,000 people, 1,000 students, and they said 70 percent of the students needed the card after 8.30 p.m. and before 5.30 a.m., and needed four swipes, and needed the weekend. We were able to get a MetroCard rights pamphlet. But today is really instrumental. This change is going to help hundreds of thousands of our young people. Make sure they can go to a program. Get involved in a sports activity. Talk about maybe talking about an internship over the summer. 

The cost has been prohibitive to so many New Yorkers. We heard, really, from Malik and Subah, how it impacted them. Think about that for every New York City public high school student who wants to have a strong resume to get into college, to be able to do something professionally. This change will be instrumental. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, four swipes is going to be game-changing for our students. It's game-changing for the city. 

This is really what we're talking about. Now students can do the sports, can do the internship, can make a difference. I want to thank you all for your leadership. I want to thank the Department of Education and the Councilwoman Brooks-Powers for her leadership, because we are here today because everyone came together because we know it was going to better all the students of New York City. Thank you.

Labbo: Thank you, assemblymember. You've been working on this issue a long time, so this is a special milestone. Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, Chairman of Transportation in the Council.

City Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers: Thank you, and good morning. I believe deeply in transportation as a public good and in the right of every single New Yorker to access it. It is for this reason that I am excited to be here today with Mayor Adams, MTA Chair Janno Lieber, my colleague in the Assembly, Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, and our exceptional students here celebrating the launch of the student OMNY cards. 

First, I want to just acknowledge how impressed I am by these young people. As a former athlete, I have to say, Transit used to have a really dope track team. I'm not sure what it looks like right now, but I ran for Washington Irving, and it was a lot of competition back then. I'm in a unique place where I think I can really speak to the evolution of transportation as a student. Where I remember, I'm old enough to remember the token as well as the paper travel cards that we used to get on the bus, but I also remember having to take a MetroCard as well and the limitations that it had. 

It was great to get us to where we needed to go as someone coming from Southeast Queens going all the way into Manhattan to go to school. It is something that bridged a gap for many of my classmates and myself. Thanks to this new program, New York City students can access up to four free rides a day on our subway, subways, buses, and rail using one card throughout the year. The city will distribute free OMNY cards instead of MetroCards to our 1.1 million public school students for this upcoming school year moving us one step closer to contactless free trip benefits for eligible students. 

For students who live half a mile or more from their school building, these free rides are absolutely essential. With more than three quarters of regular fare customers already using OMNY on our buses and subways. I'm excited that we're bringing this successful program to our schools. All New Yorkers deserve reliable, high quality transit options that at rates everyone can afford. Following a budget in which we were able to secure additional funding for the expansion of Fair Fares, we will continue to fight to make our transportation systems more equitable for all. 

Thank you to Mayor Adams and to Chair Lieber for making this exciting initiative a reality. I look forward to working with you to make the city's transit more affordable and accessible for our students and for all of New York City. Thank you so much.

Lieber: Okay, because there's always a few acknowledgments that I botch, so I'm going to fix that right now. One is, the guy who runs New York City Transit right now is an amazing transit leader who's been a source of inspiration to many here at Transit Tech, Demetrius Crichlow. Thank you for all you do, among other things, giving us the best subway service in 12 years. 

The reason our customers are happier than they used to be is not just because service is running well, but also because we have a great customer service operation, and Shanifah Rieara runs that. Thank you, Shanifah, for everything that you do. Anthony Diggs is here with us as well, is another student at Transit Tech who is a transit enthusiast and user. We're thrilled that you were able to join as well. With that, mayor, may we take some Q&A?

Mayor Adams: Sounds like a plan.

Lieber: All right, let's have at it.

Question: You got it all right. Just in terms of these student OMNY cards, is there going to be a way for the students to transfer them onto their phones? When do they go into effect? Is it going to be this summer for the summer school students, or come September?

Lieber: We are in the process of, the next school year, we're going to have the ability to have it all be done on the phones. Because the one thing we know is students do lose MetroCards, we know that, because they come back and ask for substitute ones. 

We hope that they will not lose their OMNY card, because we're not requiring them to have all different kinds of cards. One thing they don't lose, their phone. We do need to transition that. A year from now, we're anticipating it will be on the phone, but this is the phase in to get used to the OMNY system.

Question: Thank you. Hi, I have one question for you, Mayor Adams. The first is, you talked about fare evasion and the correlation between that and crime, which we've been talking about since January. Would you speak more on that, and how that relates to the students, if you've seen a correlation between students and transit crime?

Mayor Adams: Actually, we learned that from back in the days with Bill Bratton, where we saw a connectivity between those who were not paying their fare and going on to the system and committing crimes. A lot of the individuals who we found later now that have carried out violent crimes in the subway system, when we go back to track who they are, we notice that they did not pay their fare. Fare evasion on a whole shows a disproportionate number of people who don't pay their fare and commit crimes. 

I think when it comes down to students, they're doing it out of necessity. They are trying to get to school, they're trying to pick up their niece, their nephew, their sibling, and they just don't have the money to do so. We are attempting to make it easier to not to have these young people have a record, because they're trying to carry out an activity that they must do as part of their daily interaction. As the two students stated, being in sports, being an athlete, having to get to and from practice and other things, and on the weekends are important. 

This is more a preventive step, so that we don't have our young people have to jump to turnstile. They can't do the things that they need to do, and this is a way to do it. 

Question: Last question. Would you guys just be able to brief over the restrictions, if there are any, for these OMNY cards?

Lieber: I don't think there are. I think the restriction, there really aren't restrictions. That's what's different. It's 24/7, 365, no more hourly restrictions, no more restrictions that you can't use it on the weekends, and no more restrictions that you can't use it out of the school year. You can use it in the summer when school is out. You can use it in the middle of the night or coming home from a game or another activity. It is about flexibility. That's the difference, no restrictions.

Question: Sorry, where a student lives, if that has to do with it, how much money their family is making, or any student in New York City can get this?

Lieber: The school system does apply some restrictions on, if you live right next door to the school, they're not giving out free transit passes. Those are administered by the school, and that's been in effect for some time. For most kids, this is going to be a game changer. 

Question: Can 3K and pre-K children get these OMNY cards?

Lieber: Yes, I don't think the little kids are getting them, in part because the system already permits little kids to ride for free.