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Crews install a bank of fare gates at the Los Angeles City College portal of the Vermont/Santa Monica Red Line station.
Photo by Yours Truly. This and other photos can be seen on the MetroRiderLA Flickr pool.
Pro-turnstile news: Metro is continuing on its plan to install fare gates at all subway and sealed light rail stations. The latest installations are at the Vermont/Santa Monica Station. Crews quickly mounted this bank of turnstiles Tuesday afternoon. For riders who have not seen turnstiles yet, they will spin freely for another year.
Anti-turnstile news: Metro is making good on its threat to install fare gates at all subway and sealed light rail stations. The latest installations of this $100 million fiasco-in-the-making are at the Vermont/Santa Monica Station. Crews quickly mounted this bank of easily cheatable turnstiles Tuesday afternoon. For riders who have yet to be bewildered by any of the existing crop of gates, they will spin freely for another year.
Discussion
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Please keep discussions civil: exercise Troll Controll.
I’m rather enjoying this new Jekyll and Hyde style the last few posts have featured.
Fare gates ARE needed and should have been installed 10 years ago. More than half of the people on the rail are not paying. Nothing in this world is free, if you want a great mass transit system you gotta start paying your fair share. Currently Metro only gets 20% of the actual cost to operate the system. With the gates it may raise to 25% or more. That money can go towards expanding and maintaining a better transit system for everyone in Los Angeles.
Art Leahy Metro CEO said at a Transit Coalition Meeting that Fare Collection has increased with the installation of Fare gates
The quote is Here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy_qV1d_qMw&NR=1
[@ 5:36 in].
the sooner you get over your fear of fare gates, the better.
I recently spent a very nice weekend in San Francisco where every subway and every underground light rail station had either turnstiles or fare gates. (Turnstiles for Muni, fare gates for BART)
I had no trouble dealing with either the fare gates or the turnstiles.
I had no trouble with TransLink, San Francisco’s equivalent to the TAP card, for that matter. Indeed, having a TransLink card meant that I didn’t have to wait in line to buy BART tickets or cough up the exact change when I got on the bus.
Seriously, like Cochon said, get over it.
yay turnstiles! i LOVE IT!
Eric: Just to play devils advocate, you do you realize the installation and implementation of fare gates costs money, right? So any gains in fare collections are first offset by the costs of installation and implementation. And what if those who currently ride for free, instead of deciding to pay, simply stop riding? Also, the turnstiles are fairly low and any scofflaw could easily jump the gates (or walk through the handicap gate), to prevent that full time staff is required to monitor the gates which again, costs money that takes away from the increased fare collection.
Just sayin’, I don’t think it’s so cut and dry.
Also, you may want to read about my recent experience with the fare gates and TAP card and fare inspectors and citations on the forum.
So far at Union Station, they don’t seem to be that much of a problem, at least in terms of getting out of the station. (I’ve seen pileups at the BART gates, and didn’t want that repeated here).
Don’t know about the light-rail lines though, since their stations were never designed with gates in mind….
I’m all for the fare gates and frankly, I think it’s insane that we haven’t had them until now.
Most other transit systems use them (New York and Philadelphia for example) and they keep people from evading fares.
Yes, they cost money to install, but they eventually will pay for themselves due to the increase in fare buyers and the almost-guaranteed increase in L.A. public transit in the next several years (once we get Expo, the Regional Connector, the Foothill Gold Line, and the Purple and Crenshaw lines).
This is a good thing. It’s a sign that the MTA may finally be getting its act together.
“Art Leahy Metro CEO said at a Transit Coalition Meeting that Fare Collection has increased with the installation of Fare gates”
Of course. No one was denying that fare evasion would decrease. The issue has always been whether the benefits outweigh the costs, and chances are they don’t.
Fares only cover 20% of the costs to run the damn thing. I would think it would be more productive to spend money elsewhere. I think it would have been more productive to wine and dine some congressmen to get federal funds for the subway…
Eric: Where do you come up with a 50% fare evasion rate? That is not what the analysis suggests.
When I was in Rome in 2004, there were no fare gates on it’s subway system. I couldn’t figure out the fare policy and there were no station agents (sound familiar?), so I just rode the darn thing for free.
I bet this is not uncommon to Los Angeles. Fare gates are great and bring a sense of security to the metro rail system.
LAofAnaheim:
Rome’s subway are gated. At least it was when I visited 2 months ago. The regional trains are not gated. You could walk up to the platform and board it for free if you want.
“I couldn’t figure out the fare policy and there were no station agents (sound familiar?)”
LOL, unless there was a language barrier, either you’re incredibly stupid or Rome’s fare structure takes a PhD to understand.
I can’t imagine people are so confused by the fare structure in Los Angeles that they risk fare evasion. Actually, TAP and fare gates are likely to make things more confusing, and our system won’t have full-time attendants.
Here’s a little hint if you get stuck in traffic – the push doors aren’t alarmed yet. I saw some poor dad try to get push his stroller out at Union Station – the stroller, of course, wouldn’t fit, and the handicapped gate was nowhere nearby, so I pushed the door expecting some alarm or ROC to yell at me over the intercom, but nothing happened despite the signage.
Just FYI, work is going on in the Vermont/Sunset to install faregates. Starting this past Monday, crews barricated a portion of of the formerly opened area where no TAP validators, Tuesday power/communication conduits started popping up in the area, and today the faregates were staged, but not operational yet.
Fare collection is only up because for the period studied, there were sheriff’s deputine manning the gates and checking fares. Let’s see what the results are with no staffing present AS WILL BE THE CASE WHEN THE TURNSTILES ARE PUT INTO OPERATION!
Bravo LA Metro for joinging PATCO as the only rail services with un-manned and barricaded stations. Heaven help the disabled.