Transportation systems target fare evaders to win back criminal passengers

Dominique Davenport was waiting for a ride home after getting off the MetroLink light rail one night in East St. Louis, Illinois, when he heard an argument behind him on the platform, followed by gunfire.

A teenager was killed, the latest violence for a St. Louis-area transit system known for its crime and where anyone could board without even showing a ticket.

“You could just walk out of work and someone gets hired,” Davenport said. “Big drug addicts, drug dealers, there are so many different personalities, so many different types of people going through things. And everyone catches the “train.”

As transit hubs across the country try to win back riders who have not returned since the pandemic — 26% as of September 2023 — a major obstacle is the sometimes inaccurate assumption that crime on public transit is on the rise. Many systems are increasing their enforcement measures and focusing their efforts on people who attempt to drive for free.

MetroLink has begun installing 8-foot (2.4-meter) metal gates to ensure customers cannot enter the platform without a valid ticket. That’s a major change from the honor system the bi-state light rail system has used since its founding in 1993, with fares enforced only through random onboard inspections and repeat offenders facing fines.

Transit systems in other metropolitan areas such as New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and San Francisco already required advance payments, but recently entrance gates have been reinforced to curb the temptation for riders to simply clear a turnstile.

But does cracking down on ticket skippers really help eliminate violent crime? As Janno Lieber, chairman and CEO of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, explained, “Not every fare evader is a criminal,” but virtually all criminals “have dodged fares.”

The new gates being installed at MetroLink stations in the St. Louis area are commonly referred to as “fare gates” elsewhere. But Kevin Scott, general manager of safety for Bi-State Development, the agency that oversees transit in the region, quickly corrected the remark. They are “security gates,” he says, emphasizing that the $52 million purchase, which also includes the purchase of 1,200 regularly monitored cameras, is less about catching passengers and more about improving security go.

“We’ve seen it time and time again where something happens on the street, then everyone runs to the MetroLink platform and that’s where the shooting or stabbing happens,” Scott said. “We’re really trying to influence the general perception that the system is unsafe. We could have taken five or six steps forward in safety, but when an incident occurs we are now three or four steps back.”

According to the Federal Transit Administration, assaults and homicides on public transit roughly doubled between 2011 and 2023. Several transit agencies, including the St. Louis MetroLink, have recently reported a drop in crime.

There is less current national data on the relationship between crime and fare evasion. However, nearly 94% of people arrested for violent crimes on the Los Angeles subway from May 2023 to April 2024 were people who did not pay fares. Metro is testing higher ticket gates and some stations now require customers to tap a card at the stop as they go out as well as in.

Joshua Schank, who wrote a report for the Mineta Transportation Institute examining whether transit should be free, said guarded entrances are emblematic of the main question underlying public transportation: Should it be a service for all or only for those who can afford to go? ?

“There’s a tendency to rely on the idea that enforcing fares or setting up fare gates is a security solution because it’s something concrete you can do,” said Schank, a partner at InfraStrategies. “Perhaps that is the answer, but it is worth examining other elements of behavior to improve safety, rather than just relying on ticket windows.”

The New York subway system has long been notorious for fare evasion. A widely seen YouTube video shows a man squeezing through a turnstile by pulling it back just slightly, and another shows five people pushing through a gate after paying just one ticket. Earlier this year, more than 1,400 turnstiles were modified to prevent slipping, and more changes are being tested to make jumping more difficult.

Like New York, Washington, DC’s Metro subway system has been working to raise its gates higher while increasing patrols for unpaid riders. The police have filed more than 10,000 reports of fare evasion this year, almost three times as many as in the same period last year. More than 250 people caught skipping tickets were arrested on outstanding warrants and 16 weapons were seized.

Last month, four people were shot while sleeping on an elevated train in Chicago. Gate improvements were already part of the Chicago Transit Authority’s plan to increase security at L train stations, along with better patrols and a gun detection pilot program.

San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit has had fare gates since it opened in 1972, but until 2018 an officer had to actually witness someone dodging a fare in order to issue a ticket. Customers now face fines if they do not have a payment receipt or ticket with them. Additionally, each gate is reinforced with security panels that, according to spokesman Jim Allison, are almost impossible to open “unless you’re an NFL linebacker and try to do so with full force.”

“We started looking at fare evasion a little differently because it was not only a business expense, but also a cultural burden,” Allison said. “There was a feeling that trust in the system was being undermined because so many people were seeing fare evaders.”

Sound Transit, which operates the Seattle area’s regional light rail system, has never had fare gates and has no plans to add them after a study concluded the systemwide cost could be as high as $200 million.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in Philadelphia estimates it loses up to $68 million annually due to fare evasion. Still, expensive new gates like the glass gates installed by SEPTA rarely pay for themselves quickly through more effective toll enforcement.

For this reason, many systems, including the St. Louis MetroLink, justify the purchase less from a financial perspective and more from other factors such as safety and fairness.

The Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center station near the Davenport workplace in East St. Louis was among the first to be upgraded. Until the ticket system is operational, employees will open the gate manually when customers present proof of payment.

“I like it,” Davenport said. “If they know you’re going to pay your fare and take the train home, they’ll let you through.”