German
Spanish
French
Italian
Portuguese
Japanese
Korean
Russian
ChineseThe Fare Gates Are Coming
[tags]red line, metro, los angeles, fare gates, green line, subway, light rail[/tags]
Fare gates on the Boston Green Line. Photo courtesy of iandavid via Flickr.
To the surprise of possibly no one, the Metro board voted to install fare gates at Metro Rail stations. According to a recent Metro report, 5% of Metro Rail riders do not pay their fares, resulting in $5.5 million a year in lost fare revenue. The estimated cost to install barriers on the Red and Green lines, as well as “select” light rail stations? $30 million to install and $1 million a year for operations. Only one person on the Metro Board, Richard Katz, voted against the project, calling it “a great boondoggle”.
In the past, some MetroRiderLA contributors have spoken out against the idea of turnstiles on Metro rail. I remain skeptical at best. My feeling is that this has less to do about recovering lost fares and more to do about implementing the TAP card program effectively. It seems to me that Metro is planning to reorient the entire system of fare payment around the TAP card, and as it currently stands (I will offer a full report on my experiences with the TAP card in a separate article) the TAP card concept simply does not and cannot effectively work on the rail lines without fare gates. Without gates and with TAP the honor system will fall apart (more than it apparently has) due to the fact that there is no cost-effective way (at least compared to the current system) to ensure that a TAP card holder did indeed tap his card and that the card has any real value. Without gates, TAP becomes the boondoggle.
Gates on the Red Line and Green Line could work in theory – the grade separation of the lines means the platforms are already effectively isolated enough to allow a few select gated entries. On the other light rail lines, I’m not so sure. I just don’t see the point or logic of having gates at some stations and no gates at others. In a transportation system, consistency is key. Also, our system as it stands is extremely accessible for the disabled/handicapped… it would be a shame to lose that first-class accessibility by poorly implementing a barrier system. Other systems I have ridden on with fare gates generally have a large gate (not turnstile) for those in wheelchairs/disabilities/lots of luggage but this has to be manned to ensure that it is not being abused. This brings me to the major point of contention: labor. In my opinion, to be effective, a fare gate system requires a full time on-site staff at each station to ensure that the multiplicity of problems that might occur at the gates do not. Has this been factored into the $1 million a year operational cost? Somehow I doubt it.
Will Metro be adding these along with the gates? Photo courtesy of tompagenet via Flickr.
If Metro has decided this is the way to go, then so be it, but it must be done correctly. I doubt the money lost from fare evaders will be recouped by the fare gates, but like I said earlier, I really don’t think this is the main intention (despite what is written in the paper).
Further Reading:
Discussion
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Please keep discussions civil: exercise Troll Controll.
lets hope they’re of the atlanta (and i’m sure others) school gates, like the one pictured, and not the insane nyc iron maiden ones.
The fare gate implementation is fantastic! Too many times do I see riders just pass by the Ticketing machines. I believe some have not paid their fares and it’s not fair.
When I was in Istanbul I saw light rail stations were actually gated for entries. People could hop onto the platforms, but the official side entrances required tickets. And, b/c there’s a ticketing machine, a staff person is REQUIRED at all times. So, those cheaters will be busted if the gates are implemented properly on our light rail stations. However, I don’t believe this will implemented for a while (I hope the MTA staff visit Istanbul).
Anyways, I believe part of the ongoing $1 million cost will include staff. You cannot have gates at a system without a staff member to help with gating issues?? Nowhere in the world do they not have a staff person available for issues like that. So, in turn, the gated system will make our Metro system APPEAR safer. The gates is a win-win for everybody in my opinion!
Any idea on how the TAP system or turnstiles in general will affect Metrolink riders who are granted free transfers with a paid Metrolink ticket?
Couldn’t the money spent on turnstiles instead be used on increased spot checks that would also increase the law-enforcement presence? Is that too low-tech? Or would it deprive Tutor-Saliba and its ilk of another cushy contract?
I think the gates have the POTENTIAL to be fantastic. I also think they have the potential to be a massive fiasco. Metro’s track record on implementing new technologies/infrastructure is not the best in my opinion.
“Anyways, I believe part of the ongoing $1 million cost will include staff.”
I would hope so, but it’s kind of hard to believe. According to Metro’s annual pay table, the lowest yearly salary is about 25k. So if they had a single staff member at each station (for a total of 30 stations, Red and Green Line) that would compute to over 750k per year just on staff. And obviously that’s an unrealistic estimate since one person per station is not viable considering multiple entrances and the fact that stations are open for over 20 hours a day.
I certainly hope they aren’t going to try and implement this without agents stationed at each station, to help with gate issues, handicapped, bigger loads, bicycles, etc. Right now it’s very convenient with my bicycle, I just hop on at any entrance and go.
It will be interesting to see how they implement it at some stations, especially on the green line, which can have 2-4 stair entrances and an elevator (possibly two in some cases).
“Right now it’s very convenient with my bicycle, I just hop on at any entrance and go.”
Great point Matthew. I love taking my bike on Metro Rail and I get a bad feeling in my stomach when I think of bike + gates.
I forgot to mention, there are some benefits to this if they are going to staff all stations (although I expect the financial one to be minimal), namely that there will be someone to answer questions about getting from place to place at each station. I went on a Metro Art Tour yesterday, and at least a 2-3 times someone asked one of the docents about getting around, which apparently happens regularly for them, plus I get asked occasionally by some stranger on the platforms.
It also would be comforting to a lot of people to have at least one Metro employee at each station.
On the financial front, they still aren’t going to get everyone who rides to pay. Even New York, which have gates designed to minimize the ability to jump a gate, still has fare evaders, and I’ve even seen it on crowded buses, so the problem will likely never be completely eliminated.
Here’s a link to a photo of the Istanbul light rail that LAofAnaheim mentioned.
I’m underwhelmed and somewhat concerned – I’ve never seen a fare gate system implemented in a workable way for wheelchairs, save for perhaps DC. Perhaps.
Boston: The “charlie” gates are all too small for wheelchairs except for one. The one that isn’t too small opens to any card, not just disability cards, for ADA reasons (there’s legal authority that basically adds up to “you can’t deny access to someone simply because they haven’t gotten their ID card yet”), and it stays open longer for accessibility reasons – meaning that some 10+ people passed through it behind me every morning. I seriously wanted to carry a cattle prod because of how much it torqued me off.
New York: Ahh, NY. The AutoGates there are a joke upon a joke. They only work on days that don’t end in the letter “y” and often require a staffed gate to work with. The auto gates only open to reduced fare metrocards, which opens NYC MTA up to an ADA lawsuit. (anyone care for anymore acronyms, imho, otoh…)
San Francisco: Now THIS was a funny joke. At the Market subway stations, they simply don’t bother to put fare barriers on the elevators. Observe as Aaron buys $10 BART pass at Powell. Observe as Aaron forgets to go over to the fare gates at Embarcadero to validate his card on exit. Observe as, apparently, $10 of Aaron’s card are wiped out in a single ride because he failed to “check out” of the system. Observe as Aaron gives up and takes MUNI for the rest of the trip instead.
Washington: The gates actually work there. Sort of. With the downside being that I still remember the two huge, ugly bruises on my arms from when I didn’t scurry through the gate quickly enough. If I think about it long enough my arms start hurting again. That’s a pretty big downside – I can’t wait for the personal injury lawsuits against WMATA.
This is absolutely horrible. It seems like the facts, which have been reviewed several times here, and consistently show that faregates suck from all perspectives, just don’t matter. It just suggests that elected officials can’t be trusted to run transit systems.
The cost figures quoted are a complete joke. BART recently spent $10 million just to install new faregates in *one* station.
Mike: You’re right to be concerned, I’m not aware of a city that seamlessly integrates. Boston used to, when you just flashed your card to get through, but its new technology (similar to TAP), but the introduction of the new system actually broke the system and as of when I left town, over a year after implementation, they hadn’t really come up with a useful solution.
Staffing issues: Not all stations will be staffed. That’s basically a given. For sake of guessing, some stations will have staff most of the time (NoHo, Vine, Wilshire/Vermont), some will have more often than not (Wilshire/Western, Metro Center, maybe Universal) and H&H and Union will probably have full-time staff. But the rest of them? I highly doubt it. I certainly doubt that we’ll ever see a human at Normandie, which concerns me greatly – if they do it like Boston and the only wheelchair gate in the station breaks, I’ll be SOL.
Gate agents are essential when this is implemented, but it is a natural evolution.
A new metro pass should be designed that allows for swiping or touching technology to allow pass holders to stream through the gates.
Dan: Observe what happened in Boston when they tried to implement a system that allows people to “stream through the gates.”
The sad fact is that about the only thing that can work effectively is NYC’s iron maidens, and those aren’t safe and have endless ADA problems.
If we have fare gates without gate agents that can handle handicapped people and people with bicycles/other larger loads, and therefore the non-existant checking for tickets while on the line, I have a feeling the number of people fare evaders will go up, not down. If someone figures out how to bypass the gate/get multiple people through at once and can’t be caught once they do… One of the things that keeps at least some people honest now is the potential of a $250 ticket.
On the pass front, I believe the intention is that TAP will replace the current passes, as just about any automated gate system can’t be used with our current pass system, although it’ll be interested to see how they handle EZ Transit pass users, since you would need all providers to convert to TAP or have some kind of hybrid visual/TAP pass (and getting all providers to change wouldn’t be easy, as a number of them don’t even have automated fare collection now, like Beach Cities Transit just has a box you drop your fare into, and a manual counter for pass users).
NYC Transit handles the multiple people using one pass issue quite easily, just limit the use of one pass at one station to every x minutes (I forget how many, I think something like 10, it says on their website).
1) The vote was to come back with a plan to implement, not to implement.
2) Anyone want to wager a bet that annual operations/labor costs was way underestimated?
3) If we simply made every pass (including day pass) a TAP card wouldn’t that clearly show who refuses to tap on and tap off?
About time! Maybe now we will finally be rid of the smelly, annoying and often insane homeless people that squat on the trains all day. Good riddance.
Fun to hear all the points of view. Anyone remember and/or used the old model? You know, a coin and a turnstile or a booth and tokens. [Raises hand.] Anyone remember the dark days? You know, pay or pass or turnstile or a combination? [Raises hand.] Anyone remember the transitionary systems? You know, honor, one way, zones. [Raises hand.]
Here is the deal. Transit is moving towards a use based model. This is by necessity. No doubt a TAP-TAP type assessment is the goal. Possibly even a tap-tap-tap system. At that point RFID is the way to go. The good thing about RFID is that you can tag your bicycle or stroller or other non-carryon.
The problem with t2 or t3 is the biggest users are going to pay more and by necessity become less using of transit. IMO that is a smaller price than what we pay now for the abusers who don’t pay or use passes to over-consume a limited and subsidized public resource.
This is something on which Rob Dawg and I agree.
We can no longer afford abusers who pay nothing under the “honor” system.
Dan,
We probably agree on a lot of things. We just disagree on the edges of transit. Not so much about the facts but what to do about the sad state of those facts.
The Booz Allen plan does not call for staffing at every station, rather one attendant per FIVE stations plus two people at Rail Operations Center handling issues via closed circuit camera. The handful of roving attendants would also be tasked with checking fares for the Blue Line and Gold Line, where most of the stations will remain ungated and costs are likely to shoot up. The Blue Line is already pretty crime ridden anyway, so reducing the minimal police presence on the Blue Line is not going to help matters any.
The other reason this is being sold is for the alleged value of law enforcement tracking a criminal’s fare card (if they are stupid enough to register it in the first place). New York MTA actually quoted Law and Order as a reason to install fare gates, to wit, “Watch a few reruns of the various ‘Law & Order’ TV series which
depicts similar use by real law enforcement in NYC.” Yeah, Fred Thompson is not selling me any fare gates. I’m sorry, this is just an asinine response. (http://www.metro.net/board/Items/2007/11_November/20071115EMACItem27.pdf, p. 85)
Distance based fares for rail coupled with day passes and reduced rates for seniors and disabled is where I hope we’re heading with more lines to nowhere…I mean Ontario Airport.
What I don’t understand, is how we can’t accomplish all of that with tap-on tap-off, whether with existing or new technology.
The recent post by Fred has me thinking that RFID, although the ACLU might go ape is the best solution. And it would seem to allow distance based fares on bus adding 25 cents to rapids/expresses/etc.
“Dan,
We probably agree on a lot of things. We just disagree on the edges of transit. Not so much about the facts but what to do about the sad state of those facts.”
Point well taken.
I really wish we’d have a fare structure that would offer passes with unlimited rides on any form of transit in the county. My London Monthly Pass allowed me to travel via subway, bus, commuter rail, ferry, light rail, anything within the zones of my pass.
So, a system that lets me ride with a Metrolink Ticket, a Blue Bus transfer, a Long Beach transfer, an OCTA trnasfer, a Culver City Bus transfer, a Foothill Transit transfer, etc., etc. will be tossed out in order to collect a measly $5m?? Bully!
Aren’t we supposed to be encouraging transit use in the region???
i agree with the idea that people using transit should have to pay for it. that’s simple, but the question is, how far can we go to “stop” them. as everyone has pretty much stated, the 30mil estimate is an obvious low balling and the 1mil per year is even more absurd. to got with rob dawg’s manifesto, MTA budgets one figure then doubles it when it comes to actual implementation. crude math would have us believe it’ll be more like 60 mil and 2 mil a year if not more to operate. however, to me such expenditures are acceptable and important if this is to be done right. unfortunately, right now the TAP card is pretty much a joke but even more of a joke if it’s implentation is solely based on an honor policy of “tapping” it. whose to say i tapped when i got on? am i to believe that cops wandering the subways will have mini scanners to see when i last “tapped” my card was? if so, how much is that going to cost? i think the Tap card is pretty much pointless unless such gates are installed.
furthermore, without the “tap in-tap out” it makes the whole future of our system even more of a joke. therefore if they’re going to do this, don’t just come up with some fake number, but instead spend the necessary money to make the whole system a near impossibility for fare evaders and a better system on a whole for the future.
Why are people assuming we’re going to recoup the whole amount anyhow? Even NYC’s iron maidens still leave a good 1%+ of fare evaders. If there are still going to be open stations on the blue and gold lines, it’s going to be as much of a joke as Boston’s half-assed system. The way this should be analyzed is what amount we can reduce fare evasion to, because it’s certainly not zero.
No turnstiles! No gates!
They will cost more to install than we will get back in fares. Only 3% to 5% of riders don’t pay.
People will jump over the turnstiles. In New York they used to have “token suckers” who would run over and perform artificial respiration on the coin slots and steal the tokens people had put in. My point is: some people will always find a way to beat the system and you will NEVER get 100% fare compliance.
If you put giant floor-to-ceiling gates, those will make the system feel like a PRISON.
They might even make the stations hard to evacuate in an emergency.
And, putting an attendant at EVERY STATION is also a bad idea. Budget buster. The would have to be locked into a booth for safety purposes. How safe is that really if there’s a fire?
Well, stop complaining, you say. Why don’t you suggest a solution then, you say. I will.
More fare inspectors. I believe if they are MTA employees rather than Sherrif’s Department they can be payed less. Not sure what the law is on this, but it should be looked into.
Sorry, I’ve used the New York subway and I just don’t like the feel of the iron bars. We’ve had a barrier-free system for 15 years, and as far as I am concerned, that is how the LA system works, and I am used to it. And I like it. It’s easy, and it’s open.
Do we want to live in an open world or one consisting of steel bars?
People not iron bars!
The fare gate implementation is fantastic!
I totally agree with that. I live in Paris, France and previously lived in Lyon (southeast of France). The difference between these two cities? One has fare gates on its transit system (Paris) and the other implemented it while I was living in the city (so, no more difference ;o))
Anyways, the cost on Lyon network (TA: http://www.sytral.fr/) was around 25-30 million euros but they dramatically cut off the fraud which accounted (this is an estimation while that’s difficult to count who’s frauding) for around 20-25%. Transit is already cheap and if 20% of riders do not pay… it’s worth the investment.
Good job that your city put fare gates to “close the network”.
Matthieu Desiderio
Transport Information Group
http://www.matthieudesiderio.com/
[...] on MetroRiderLA we discussed the fare gates to come on most Metro Rail stations in the near future, as well as the TAP Card’s role in [...]