The Craigslist ad was meant to sound like a strap hanger dream.
“For $100, you don’t need a MetroCard,” the seller wrote.
“Fare increases are fine,” he added. “There are people who need a ticket gate!”
The seller wanted to get a key that would open all emergency gates on the New York City Subway and allow passengers to bypass the turnstiles and avoid the $2.90 fare.
When contacted by the NBC New York I team, the seller agreed to meet, demonstrating how easy it was to avoid fares and ride the MTA.
“I got it from someone who works for the MTA,” the seller said, not knowing it was being recorded by the I-Team. “I end up using the key in front of the police.”
He may have slipped through the turnstile before without paying, but the day the seller met with the I-Team, he encountered a large obstacle, or, more precisely, a large railway blockade.
Unknown to the seller, the New York City Transit Authority had just completed a major project to put metal caps over the keyholes on all subway emergency access gates. Prior to this year, one of the two keyholes in each gate was used by MTA personnel and various contractors to access the platform for repairs and maintenance. But over time, some keys were copied and some ended up in the wrong hands.
New York City Transit President Richard Davey could not disclose how many gate keys are illegally distributed to the public, but there are so many that the MTA needs to stop further gate fraud. said there is.
“So what we’ve done over the last two months is replace every single key in the system,” Davey said. “Fare dodging is as old as the subway, so it’s our responsibility to stay ahead of opportunities and those who get scammed.”
The MTA is taking additional steps to deter fare avoiders.
Before the pandemic, fare avoidance on subways hovered between 5% and 7%, Davey said. But the rate of scammers has doubled since New York City came out of coronavirus restrictions, he said, with ticket gate jumpers costing the New York City Transit Authority more than $600 million last year.
As part of its strategy to reduce fraud, the New York City Transit Authority has installed high-tech turnstiles with taller glass doors and turnstiles to prevent the commonly used “backcock” to tilt the turnstile. Investigating low-tech interventions such as retrofitting. A metal bar is set back slightly so people can walk through without paying.
The MTA has also had success with a simpler strategy of paying an unarmed private security guard to stand at the fire gate. Stations with private gate guards added an additional $14 million in fare revenue last year, officials estimate. This is a promising sign that more strap hangers are following station rules and paying swipe fees.
Fares dodging is rampant across the city, with people jumping over ticket gates, unlatching easy-to-reach exit doors, and jumping on buses without paying. NBC New York reporter Andrew Schiff reports.
After you’ve capped one of the keyholes on each emergency door, there’s still one keyhole left that’s operational. The remaining keyholes are reserved exclusively for his FDNY and his NYPD counterparts who have keys that are difficult to copy.
The Craigslist seller left the subway station after trying the keys at multiple gates without success. Many other stations still had unprotected keyholes, claiming they were vulnerable to fare fraud. The I-Team then contacted the seller and informed them of the MTA’s Keyhole Cap Program and that there had been a recording while they were trying to sell the keys.
He emailed back to see the video, admitting, “The key didn’t work. I didn’t sell it to you or anyone else.” And I think the MTA is doing a great job of stopping fare avoidance. “
