The MTA plopped down another $5 million to combat fare evasion on buses—as scofflaws continue to avoid the farebox with impunity.
A pilot program that gives MTA workers handheld devices to check if Select Bus Service passengers paid for their rides will be extended to 2030 after a vote by the transit agency’s board Wednesday.
Transit officials, however, were mum on how well the pilot, for which board members approved a $4.9 million contract modification going to Cubic Transportation Systems, worked in the first place.
More than 50% of passengers on Select Bus Service lines don’t pay the fare, the MTA’s own numbers show.
“The success is that the technology worked,” said Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA construction and development, without providing any specific figures.
Fare evasion has been a costly problem across the MTA’s system of trains, buses, bridges and tunnels, with $700 million lost in 2022 alone.
The transit giant’s quest to recover the lost revenue has led to some embarrassingly ineffective solutions, such as $700,000 electronic panel doors that were defeated on TikTok with a simple hack and a $1 million study into the psychology of fare beaters.
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Fare dodging on buses reached a peak of 49% of all bus passengers in summer 2024, although it has been inching downward since, MTA data shows.
The MTA last summer deployed fare inspectors , known as EAGLE teams, to stop scofflaws on buses.
EAGLE teams have been using the so-called “onboard validation devices,” which are mounted on MTA workers’ mobile phones to scan credit cards to see if passengers indeed made payments, officials said.
MTA boss Janno Lieber said the devices will help the agency fight fare evasion on buses.
“This is what the New York Post wants, pushing back against fare evasion,” he said, adding its down in subways 30% since last summer.
“There’s been for the first time in some years some turnaround in bus fare evasion and we’re determined to keep moving in the right direction by having a more effective fare evasion enforcement system and these devices are essential to do that.”
