MTA Hails $1.1B Fare Gates as ‘Modern’ Success, Official Evades Numbers: ‘Take the Fifth’
The MTA’s Fare Gate Pilot: A Mixed Bag of Results and Challenges
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has been promoting its new fare gate pilot as a success, claiming that the installation of modern, glass barriers has significantly reduced fare evasion. However, the data supporting these claims is limited, and many questions remain about the long-term effectiveness of the system.
At a recent board meeting, officials presented a chart showing a reduction in fare evasion ranging from 19% to 70%, depending on the station. These figures were based on a single week of data from a pilot program that has been running for over three months. Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA Construction & Development, admitted that the agency initially lacked the technology to accurately measure fare evasion when the first gates were installed in December.
“It’s a sample of the data that we showed. It’s pretty consistent across the board,” he said, explaining that the camera-based system needed “training” before staff felt confident in the results. “We’ll have more data shortly,” Torres-Springer added.
When a board member asked Deputy Chief of Staff Cathy Li how much the new gates would reduce the MTA’s annual subway fare evasion, which is estimated at $350 million, Chair Janno Lieber interrupted before she could answer.
“I’m going to interrupt and take the fifth on that one,” Lieber said. “We have to see more data before we can have confidence.”
Safety Concerns and Legal Risks
The pilot program has also raised safety concerns. Several people have been injured by the doors, including a 5-year-old girl whose head was trapped long enough that she had to be taken to the emergency room with swelling. Lieber made headlines when he blamed the girl’s mother for the incident.
MTA General Counsel Paige Graves informed board members that the authority has already received notices of potential claims but no actual lawsuits at this time. Lieber downplayed the legal risks, stating, “The MTA gets sued every day, all day.” He added that similar gates are used in other “first-class world transit systems.”
Despite the challenges, Lieber insisted the agency is learning from the pilot and making adjustments. Li tried to address the viral videos of New Yorkers hurdling and crawling under the 6-foot-tall paddles.
“We know we have many creative New Yorkers who have been able to get over and under and they’ve loved sharing that with us on social media,” she said. Still, she argued, “most New Yorkers are not training for the high jump Olympics.”
“We realize that it’s going to be very difficult to crack down on 100% of fare evasion,” Li said. “But these new gates really eliminate the major sources of fare evasion that we see with our turnstiles and our exit gates.”
Adjustments and Future Plans
Li mentioned that the MTA has already tweaked the “paddle reaction times” and the gates’ sensors to better detect backpacks and luggage, calling the rollout a “learning curve.” “Like the introduction of any new technology there’s going to be a learning curve,” Li said.
The gates are now installed at 20 stations, with plans to expand to 150 stations by 2029. Lieber framed the expensive project as a morale-builder for paying riders. “Updating fare gates is one of the most impactful things we can do to encourage fare payment and rebuild New Yorkers’ morale,” he said, calling fare evasion “a fundamental morale issue” as well as a financial one.
