A pilot offering free, unlimited transit to a small group of City University of New York students has distributed 693 of its 700 OMNY cards, a 99 percent pickup rate. The New York City Council and CUNY released the result Friday after funding the program with $700,000. The first round is limited, but its near-complete uptake provides a concrete measure of demand among students selected to participate.
The eligibility rules targeted students with demonstrated financial need and regular reasons to travel to campus. Participants had to be eligible for Pell grants, enrolled full time with at least 12 credits in both fall and spring, and taking at least two courses in person. Students already receiving transportation help through another program were excluded. Those conditions narrowed the pilot to people likely to use transit frequently for education.
The pool of interest was much larger than the number of available cards. Approximately 54,000 CUNY students met the stated criteria, and more than 28,500 completed an interest form sent by email. Seven hundred were selected. That means the 99 percent figure describes pickup among the chosen participants, not coverage of all eligible students. The gap between interest and supply will be central to any debate over expanding the program.
The physical cards are configured for unlimited use. For the fall term, they are active from October 5 through December 25. A second unlimited period of 120 days is scheduled to begin January 28, 2027, covering the spring semester. The Council and CUNY said participants may be able to add the benefit to a digital wallet after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority introduces that capability, projected for the end of 2026.
Transit cost can influence more than the trip to class. A student may also need to travel to work, a library, a laboratory, an internship, child care or a different CUNY campus. An unlimited card removes the need to weigh each trip against the remaining balance. The program does not address tuition, housing or every other student expense, but it isolates transportation as one barrier that city funding can directly reduce.
The initial numbers do not yet show whether the cards improve attendance, credit completion or retention. Those outcomes require follow-up data and a comparison with students who did not receive the benefit. Usage information could also show how often the cards are used and whether service reliability affects their value. A strong pickup rate establishes interest; it does not by itself establish the program's long-term educational effect.
Expansion would require decisions about cost, eligibility and administration. The pilot's $700,000 allocation works out to $1,000 per selected student before any unused funds or administrative details are considered, but that simple division is not a final per-rider cost. Officials would need to disclose the actual payment structure, evaluate whether the MTA can offer volume terms and decide how to prioritize students if demand continues to exceed available places.
For the 693 students who collected cards, the benefit is already active. For policymakers, the pilot has produced an unusually clear first signal: nearly every selected student completed the pickup process, while tens of thousands more asked to participate. The next useful evidence will come from actual use and educational outcomes. Those findings can determine whether free student transit remains a demonstration or becomes a broader part of the city's higher-education support system.
Primary sources: New York City Council and CUNY. Reviewed October 31, 2026. Development: October 30, 2026.