What to know
- People jumping over the turnstiles, using easy-to-reach emergency exit doors, or boarding buses without paying, fare evasion is rampant in the city.
- The panel found the MTA is on track to lose $500 million in 2021, up from $690 million last year, a 38 percent increase.
- Of this loss, buses account for $315 million and subways account for $285 million.
People jumping over the turnstiles, using easy-to-reach emergency exit doors, or boarding buses without paying, fare evasion is rampant in the city.
Unlike the MTA’s current turnstiles, which have been subject to years of tampering, some of the more high-tech models the MTA is considering now have tall glass doors that can detect when someone is trying to sneak in behind someone else.
Roger Maldonado, chairman of a 16-member panel that spent the last year studying fare evasion, said the fare gates are designed to make it more difficult to evade fare hopping.
The panel found the MTA is on track to lose $500 million in 2021, up from $690 million last year, a 38 percent increase. Of this loss, buses account for $315 million and subways account for $285 million.
The main finding of the panel is that the financial loss due to tariffs and tolls is staggering.
“The problem is bigger than everyone realizes,” said Rose Pierre-Louis, co-chair of the MTA’s Blue Ribbon Panel.
Meanwhile, Maldonado said the MTA is concerned about fare fraud becoming permanently embedded in our community. To avoid this, the panel recommends that the MTA change the way passengers enter the Metro system.
In addition to the raised glass doors, there will be an advertising campaign to emphasize to riders that buses are not as free as in the first part of the epidemic.
Rose said the campaign will have a clear message that drivers must pay.
Many passengers are sick and tired of watching the fare-beating epidemic continue.
Eleanor Winters, a commuter, told News 4 New York, “These little crimes bring everyone down.
Meanwhile, the MTA admits the subway system won’t go high-tech overnight.
MTA Chairman Jano Lieber said, “Obviously, action on that scale will take some time.
But how much will it cost to put these high-tech gates at all 462 sites? Lieber didn’t put an exact price tag on the updates, but said it would be in the billions of dollars.