Personal care attendants
Personal care attendants (PCA's) help people with disabilities in their daily life, including in travel. PCA's are eligible to ride MTA buses and subways for free when accompanying a person carrying an Access-A-Ride MetroCard with the PCA designation.
PCAs may also ride for free on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. However, PCAs may be required to carry identification that shows they are employed by a PCA agency.
Service animals
Customers with disabilities are permitted to bring their service animals into all MTA transit facilities. A service animal is defined as an animal (usually, but not always, a dog) trained to aid or guide and accompany a person with a disability.
A service animal must be under the control of its handler at all times, either using a harness or leash, or through voice, signal, or other controls. Service animals should be harnessed, leashed, or tethered, unless the customer’s disability prevents using these devices or these devices interfere with the service animal’s ability to perform its trained task.
Although customers are not required to carry identification for their service animals, New York City Transit, through its Office of ADA Compliance, issues a service animal voluntary identification (ID) card that customers may obtain and carry for convenience. A customer may, on a voluntary basis, present this ID card to a Transit employee or a police officer. Click here for the voluntary application.