For years, fare evasion has beenexistential crisisNew York City Metro Authority (MTA) Chairman Jano Lieber on Wednesday signaled that he is running out of patience with pressure on public transit agencies to “raise subway fares,” fundamentally changing the way New Yorkers use the subways. He warned that he would change his mind.
Speaking at the MTA board meeting, Lieber said the agency was exploring “maximum options” to require commuters to show proof they’ve paid their fare before leaving a station, as is done in subways around the world.
“We have to win or the system will collapse,” Lieber warned.
Mr. Lieber never said he would implement such measures. He detailed immediate efforts to crack down on fare violators, including hiring 471 private security guards near exits at 50 stations, increasing enforcement and installing several new turnstiles. explained.
These efforts build on ongoing efforts that have so far failed to eradicate fare evasion.
Lieber estimates the MTA will lose up to $800 million this year from subway and bus fare evasion. That’s roughly the same amount of losses the department suffered in 2022.
Lieber said the company would focus on those efforts before forcing passengers to show proof of payment.
“I’m going to try a lot of other things first,” he said.
The “other measures” include extending the 15-second grace period before exit gates open, but this is only in place at three stations. For Lieber, preventing people from walking through open exit gates is his white whale.
“We open the gates and 20 people walk in,” Lieber said, sounding particularly exasperated. “Twenty people walk in with MetroCards in their hands. So we’re going to fight at the gates.” [delayed] Gates. That’s why latency is so important.”
Other recent technical fixes include adjusting the 1,400 turnstiles at 105 stations to make them less prone to backcocking, a common method of jumping over turnstiles. The MTA expects 60% of stations to be retrofitted to prevent backcocking by the end of the year.
The NYPD added thousands of officers to the system this year, which has led to an increase in tickets being issued, with more than 100,000 citations issued for fare evasion last year.
This year, the fine increased to $100, but the MTA reports that more than half of people who are ticketed don’t pay the fine.
The MTA would hire additional unarmed private security guards to stand next to exit gates, bringing the total to more than 1,000 across the system at a cost of $1 million per year.
The agency is also installing new turnstiles it’s calling “wide-passage gates,” the kind of turnstiles with paddle doors that were famously used by a dancing TikTok star last year to casually walk through without paying by waving her hand over a sensor. The MTA confirmed that the flaw has been fixed. It plans to install similar turnstiles with taller gates at 15 stations this year.
Some board members questioned the continued obsession with subway fare nonpayment when only 13% of riders pay their fares. Others argue the MTA should focus on buses, where fare nonpayment is a much more serious problem. More than half of Select Bus Service riders don’t pay their fares, and 47% of local bus riders don’t pay their fares, according to the most recent MTA statistics covering the first three months of 2024.
The MTA did not announce any new measures for buses. Six months ago, the agency deployed additional “Eagle Teams” to buses to enforce laws against fare violations.
“If buses are a major drain on the MTA’s resources, then we should focus on where we’re losing money… not just in terms of fare evasion rates, but in terms of how much money the MTA is losing,” the MTA board said. Member David Jones told Gothamist.
Lieber said bus fare evasion is a “completely different situation.”
“There’s no need to compare,” he said.
