MTA continues to make progress to combat fare evasion across its system

On April 28, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul shared the latest progress on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) multifaceted plan to combat fare evasion and improve fare collection across the subway, on buses and commuter railroads and toll collection on bridges and tunnels. As a result of increased ridership and efforts to combat fare evasion, fare revenue on MTA services is up 67 percent compared to 2021.

During the past two years, the MTA has implemented a series of strategic measures to reduce fare evasion centered around equity, education, enforcement and environment. With 40 percent of the MTA’s operating budget coming from fare and tolls, MTA notes fare compliance directly impacts its ability to run the system. With support from multiple anti-fare evasion strategies, total fare revenue is trending up, reaching $5 billion for 2024 and increased by $322 million from 2023.

“These numbers show that our comprehensive strategy to combat fare and toll evasion is working and system users and taxpayers are benefitting,” Gov. Hochul said. “We will continue to use all the tools at our disposal—including increased enforcement efforts and new infrastructure—to prevent fare evasion, hold perpetrators accountable and keep these numbers trending in the right direction.”

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said, “For the last two years, we’ve been attacking fare and toll evasion from all angles, hardening the system against fare beaters, simplifying fare payment, raising awareness about discounted fares and, yes, doing more enforcement. Now those efforts are yielding positive results that will grow even more with the new modern fare gates that are coming.”

Improving the system

MTA says the subway has reached its best customer journey time performance (CJTP) in subway history, at 86 percent. Buses are traveling up to 20 percent faster in Manhattan since the launch of the congestion relief zone program. The commuter railroads are operating with record level on-time performance, with Metro-North Railroad achieving a 99 percent on-time performance for March and the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) achieving a 96 percent on-time performance.

In an effort to bring back more riders, the MTA focused on adding and improving service while investing in subway safety. In 2023, with support from Gov. Hochul and State Legislature, the MTA began a series of phased service enhancements across 12 subway lines, which is now complemented by service increases on eight express bus routes that went into effect March 30; more enhancements are slated to come June 29 across 16 local bus routes.

With more service and more riders, MTA notes major crime on the subways is down 11 percent this year. MTA says the decrease in crime follows significant efforts to create a safer environment with more police in the system, including two officers on every train overnight, cameras in every subway car, installation of LED lighting at every station and expanding the subway co-response outreach teams to address cases of severe mental illness in the system.

Subway and buses

The MTA has focused on making the system easier to use by simplifying the payment process and saving customers the guess work on what fare product is the most cost efficient for them, as 67 percent of subway and bus riders are now using the tap-and-go contactless fare payment.

LIRR and Metro-North Railroad

MTA says the TrainTime app makes it easy for customers to check travel times, buy commuter rail tickets, learn of real-time service updates, chat with a live representative and more. According to the agency, 93 percent of customers use the app to look up schedules and/or purchase tickets, resulting in 71 percent of all railroad revenue coming from tickets purchased in the app.

Bridges and tunnels

MTA notes that open road tolling has completely transformed tolling operations and dramatically improved toll collection since its implementation in 2017. Without the backups at toll plazas, the transition has greatly reduced collisions and improved traffic flow.

On April 15, the MTA, New York State Thruway Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey launched a new and improved E-ZPass website and app, providing a more streamlined and user-friendly platform to view accounts and pay tolls. As part of the launch of the congestion relief zone program, customers now have the choice to pay per trip or automatically replenish their account, which was the standard for E-ZPass accounts.

Improvements to the fare environment

The MTA has taken several steps to tackle evasion tactics across the subways and buses to create a stronger, more resilient system against fare evasion, including turnstile modifications, installations of delayed egress on emergency exits and the deployment of gate guards. According to the agency, 90 percent of all turnstiles have been reconfigured to prevent backcocking—a form of fare evasion where subway riders attempt to pass through a turnstile by pulling it back just enough to squeeze through without paying—and more than 200 stations are assigned gate guards. Stations with gate guards have seen a 36 percent reduction in fare evasion.

At gates with delayed egress, MTA notes there was a 10 percent drop in total fare evasion. Currently operational at more than 70 stations, the MTA is on track to expand delayed egress to 150 stations by the end of the year. At stations where turnstile sleeves and fins were installed, there was a 60 percent decrease in turnstile jumping.

Bus Eagle Team enforcement

The MTA has stepped up EAGLE Team deployment using a data-driven approach to optimize deployment of the EAGLE Team to bus stops and times of day with the highest concentration of fare evaders. The agency’s civilian bus fare inspection team, supported by the New York Police Department (NYPD), enforces bus fare payment at 140 locations every week. According to MTA, paid boardings increased seven percent at EAGLE intervention stops, and the overall rate of bus fare evasion has fallen for three consecutive quarters.

Commuter railroads

On the LIRR and Metro-North , a new onboard invoice policy was adopted to better enforce fare payment. In the event that a customer does not have a valid ticket for travel, MTA says they are required to provide a valid ID to be issued an invoice. According to the MTA, if an ID is not provided, the customer is advised to exit the train or police will be requested, which then results in a summons, or if a repeat offender, arrest.

The MTA notes that since implementation in June of 2024, there have been 66 percent fewer invoices issued on the LIRR. For the entire year of 2024, there were 295 percent more issuances of summonses and 140 percent more arrests than the previous year. On Metro-North Railroad, there have been 31 percent fewer invoices since the new policy went into effect and 162 percent more summonses were issued for 2024, along with 50 percent more arrests.

According to the agency, gating, or pre-boarding ticket inspections, on the commuter railroads are now a permanent program. Key findings from the pilot program reveal that the program is well received by passengers, with overall positive feedback and improvements in customer behavior, with a majority of riders having their tickets out and ready to show to a crewmember. MTA notes Metro-North implements gating programs mainly for special events, and the LIRR is now performing daily weekday ticket checks at Penn Station.

Bridges and tunnels

Toll revenue recovery has increased 44 percent since 2021. MTA says the results were greatly assisted by last year’s launch of the largest city-state interagency task force focused on removing cars with fraudulent, obscured or altered license plates, and persistent toll violators, as well as a legislative package on toll enforcement signed into law by Gov. Hochul in 2024’s enacted budget. Since the launch of the task force in March 2024, MTA notes law enforcement agencies have collectively issued more than 45,000 summonses, towed over 4,400 vehicles and made 1,025 arrests.

Looking forward

The MTA continues to advocate for stronger consequences for transit crimes, and with the support of the NYPD, public safety. The MTA’s first criminal justice advocate is working with district attorneys to prosecute theft of service, which is critical for effective fare collection enforcement, and other transit crimes.

Building on the foundation the MTA has set to tackle fare evasion, the agency will look forward to continuing progress through:

Piloting a proof of payment system on buses in 2026. This concept will be made possible by the full transition to the tap-and-go payment system, which is slated for the end of the year.
Completing physical turnstile modifications, which the MTA notes that all turnstiles will be reconfigured to prevent backcocking by summer 2025.

Modern fare gates

The MTA has shortlisted Conduent, Cubic, Scheidt & Bachmann and STraffic as potential vendors to provide modern fare gates for the subway system. Later this fall, the MTA will start testing gates from these vendors in select stations before making final determinations on which gate types will be qualified.

Each of the four vendors will be installed at five locations, for a total of 20 stations including: