Farebeating on the bus and subway systems in New York City is increasing and costs the MTA millions of dollars a year, despite many significant initiatives to try and root out fare evaders.
Based on data from the MTA, almost half (41%) of bus users traveled without paying on routes around the city in the third quarter of 2023. That is a 4% increase from the agency’s May release of its comprehensive farebeating report.
According to the study, fare evasion on the MTA’s Select Bus Service—which runs some of the busiest routes in New York City—can reach 48%.
The metro system is seeing an increase in fare-skipping. In the five years of MTA statistics that are available online, the percentage of subway users who jumped the turnstiles between July and September was estimated to be 14%, the highest amount ever.
The number is somewhat higher than the 13.5% noted in the May Farebeating Report. However, compared to the 5.7% recorded in the pre-pandemic year 2019, fare evasion on the subway has more than quadrupled.
The MTA calculated that farebeating cost it an astounding $690 million in total last year; this amount may be exceeded this year. The agency declined to provide an estimate for the present spike since officials from the agency are anticipated to unveil their proposed budget for the upcoming year in the coming weeks.
After leading the MTA for the past two years, chairman Janno Lieber has made preventing fare evasion a primary priority. His plan entails hiring 100 new fare inspectors to increase enforcement on buses, especially the local bus routes, launching a significant public service advertising campaign to highlight the costs of fare evasion in subway stations and on buses, and collaborating with the Department of Education to implement new curriculum to encourage public school students to use their city-issued MetroCards rather than hopping the turnstiles.
“As the Blue-Ribbon report noted, the increase in fare evasion seems to reflect a deep-seated culture change since the pandemic – a new attitude among too many New Yorkers that fare evasion is acceptable,” MTA spokeswoman Joana Flores told The New York Post. “The MTA knew it would take time to rebuild the right attitudes,” she added. “We are determined to change this, and over time we will.”
