NYC students to receive OMNY cards with 4 free daily trips, starting this school year

NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – For the first time, New York City students will receive OMNY cards instead of MetroCards, and the cards will include four free trips daily starting this school year, the MTA announced Thursday.

Student OMNY cards will be introduced for the upcoming 2024-2025 academic year, the MTA said. They'll include up to four free rides per day, which is up from the three free daily rides previously included. They'll also be valid 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year (the MetroCards were limited to 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.).

MetroCards have been distributed to eligible students since 1997, but the MTA has been making a push to the “tap and go” OMNY cards, which will eventually replace MetroCards entirely. More info about eligibility can be found on the NYC Schools website .

In a statement, Mayor Eric Adams called the student OMNY cards a “game changer for families across New York City, particularly for working-class families that need just a little more help to afford our city — families where older siblings pick their younger brothers and sisters up from school, or where kids have after-school and summer jobs to help make ends meet.”

The student OMNY cards will be valid on all MTA subway lines; local, limited and select buses; the Staten Island Railway; the Roosevelt Island Tram; and the Hudson Rail link. The cards also includes free transfers from one mode of transport to another, officials said.

The cards will be distributed to students at the start of the school year by each individual school across the five boroughs. Students will keep the same card throughout the school year and summer.

According to a news release from the city, the free OMNY card program will teach students how to utilize mass transit and will help build “a culture of tapping.”

Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, who is also an MTA board member, called NYC “one of the best classrooms in the world.”

“And now, as part of the city's broader switch to OMNY, New York's kids have more and better access to it,” she said.