Is the fare evasion crackdown doing any good?

Plus: What’s the total dollar value of our subway system? [View this email in a browser.]( [On The Way - from WNYC and Gothamist]( Gothamist relies on your support to make local news available to all. Not yet a member? [Consider donating and join today.]( Inside today's newsletter: - What’s the total dollar value of our subway system? - The fare evasion crackdown turned bloody in the city’s poorest neighborhood - Revisiting the last five-year capital plan MTA says fare evasion is an 'existential threat.' But for whom? By [Stephen Nessen]( Two years ago, the MTA hired hundreds of unarmed private security guards to stand near exit gates at subway stations. This year, it’s been ramping up their numbers. Last March, Gov. Kathy Hochul [sent in the National Guard]( to check commuters’ bags. Later that month, the NYPD deployed 800 additional officers into the subways to specifically address fare evasion. And in the first six months of this year, police officers issued [nearly 70,000 tickets for fare evasion]( a 5.5% increase compared to the same period last year. Despite these efforts, fare evasion has only increased. From April to June 2023, 12.5% of riders didn’t pay the fare. Over the same period this year, 14% of riders skipped out on the fare, according to the MTA. The vexing issue for the MTA [took a bloody turn on Sunday]( when NYPD officers opened fire in a Brownsville, Brooklyn subway station. The officers were aiming for a suspected fare beater who they said brandished a knife. Police fired their guns and shot the suspect – as well as three other people, including an officer. The MTA loses $300 million to fare evasion each year, which MTA Chair Janno Lieber has called a “fundamental existential threat to our ability to provide first-class public transit.” But on Wednesday, Lieber unveiled the MTA’s to-do list of projects for the coming five years, while all but admitting that he can’t do more than hope and nudge Hochul and state legislators to cover [the $65.4 billion price tag](. So what’s a bigger crisis? A fraction of riders skipping the fare, or politicians consistently failing to fund the MTA? To protesters, [18 of whom got arrested]( at the station where the shooting occurred, the “existential” threat is obvious. It’s the NYPD and MTA’s crackdown on fare beating. [first image]( Charles Lane/Gothamist “It's no secret this is not fun,” Lieber said Wednesday. “I don't love that we have to deal with fare evasion, but we have to be responsible.” He went on to reiterate his line that riders who pay the fare [feel like suckers]( as they watch people enter the system without paying. “It's a fairness issue,” he said. “It's a civic, kind of like a New York citizenship, issue. And we don't want it to just be an enforcement issue.” Besides [cheeky initiatives]( aimed at making paying the fare cool, the approach to fare beating has mostly involved enforcement. But the tools at the MTA and NYPD’s disposal are set to change in January, when a law passed by the state Legislature as part of last year’s budget bill takes effect. Under the law, fare beaters will not be fined for a first offense, and tickets for repeat offenders will be capped at $150. Low-income riders who are caught fare beating would have the penalties waived if they sign up for Fair Fares, [a program that offers half-priced MetroCards](. So will those kinder, gentler penalties make a difference? “Ultimately, the changes in the penalties are moving in the right direction. But we need the governor to fund the MTA’s capital program, including new fare gates, before we'll see a major shift,” said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesperson for the advocacy group Riders Alliance. The MTA plans to spend $1.1 billion on installing new fare-evasion proof gates at the system’s busiest stations. Lieber said the new gates would eliminate the need for exit gates, which half of all fare-beaters use to enter the system in the first place. While riders wait to see those improvements, fare evasion penalties are concentrated in a few neighborhoods. [Gothamist’s reporting]( found that the majority of fare evasion tickets are issued in communities that are mostly home to Black, Latino and low-income New Yorkers. And those are numbers that have [been consistent for years](. Curious commuter Have a question for us? [Use this form]( to submit yours and we may answer it in a future newsletter! “Has anyone ever tried to calculate the replacement cost of the New York City subway system? What is the asset value (physical value) to replace tunnels, elevated lines, subway cars, tracks, stations, subway infrastructure, etc. How would that compare to the proposed five-year capital budget?” - Jerry From Manhattan The MTA doesn’t provide a specific breakdown for the asset value of the subway system alone — but the agency does have a value for all its infrastructure: $1.5 trillion. That includes everything from the subway system to the commuter railroads to the bus depots. MTA officials admit they don’t invest nearly enough to maintain it all. The agency’s next proposed five-year capital plan would invest $65.4 billion in the system, or about $13 billion a year. A study the MTA commissioned from JPMorgan found the transit agency would need to invest $23 billion annually to “maintain a capital investment level comparable to private industry peers.” Curious Commuter questions are exclusive for On The Way newsletter subscribers. Did a friend forward this to you? [Sign up for free here]( to start asking your questions. What New York is reading this week - Last Sunday’s police shooting of an alleged fare evader with a knife — along with two bystanders and a fellow officer — came amid a fare evasion crackdown in Brownsville, one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. At a station one stop away, riders last year were 40 times more likely to be arrested for skipping the toll compared to the citywide average. [Read more](. - The family of one of those bystanders — a Brooklyn hospital worker who was left in critical condition after police shot him in the head — is calling for an investigation of the shooting. [Read more](. - The MTA on Wednesday released an ambitious $65.4 billion five-year capital plan to keep the transit system from falling into disrepair — but agency officials said they still need Gov. Kathy Hochul and other lawmakers to find new money to cover more than half of its cost. [Read more](. - The plan includes $2.75 billion to cover half the cost of building the 14-mile Interborough Express light rail line connecting Brooklyn and Queens. [Read more](. - Police arrested a 17-year-old girl on Wednesday for allegedly breaking into an empty subway train at the Briarwood station in Queens, grabbing the controls and crashing it into another train. [Read more](. - The Washington Bridge, which connects Upper Manhattan to the Bronx over the Harlem River, got a new dedicated bus lane and a two-way protected bike lane. [Read more](. - An 11-year-old boy died after falling from the Fourth Avenue - Ninth Street station on Monday morning in what officials suggested was a likely subway surfing incident. [Read more](. - The MTA this month is expanding its automated camera enforcement for double parking and blocking bus stops in 20 more bus routes across the five boroughs. [Read more](. - The southbound part of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway between Adams and Washington streets in Brooklyn will once again shrink to one lane this weekend while crews install weight sensors to automatically ticket heavy trucks. [Read more](. This week in NYC transit history [Andy Byford, smiling] MTA/Flickr Big promises, bigger letdown This week in 2019 the MTA [released a capital plan]( that transit officials said would rescue New York City subway riders from 2017’s “summer of hell.” The agency proposed a $51.5 billion capital plan that, [in the words of]( former NYC Transit President Andy Byford , “exceeds my wildest expectations.” State lawmakers and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo had five months earlier signed off on congestion pricing, along with two new taxes to fund nearly half of the capital plan. That contrasts with the new five-year capital plan released by the MTA this week, which is only half-funded. The previous capital program was doomed nearly as soon as it started. The COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench in the MTA’s ability to get work done. And of course, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s order in June to pause congestion pricing defunded $15 billion of the current plan, [stalling major transit upgrades](. [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [YouTube]( [YouTube]( [New York Public Radio] [WNYC]( | [WQXR]( | [NJPR]( | [GOTHAMIST]( [WNYC STUDIOS]( | [THE GREENE SPACE]( Copyright © New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. 160 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 [TERMS OF USE]( You can update your [PREFERENCES]( or [UNSUBSCRIBE]( from this list.