Fare evasion is so widespread on city buses that almost half of all passengers do not pay. The transport companies are therefore deploying a new force of law enforcement officers to catch the parasites.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s unarmed “fare inspectors” will be stationed on buses and at bus stops after fare evasion rates rose from 21% in 2020 to about 50% in the first quarter of 2024 – costing an estimated millions in lost revenue each year.
“The MTA uses your fares to hire more bus drivers and mechanics, expand and modernize our fleet, and improve frequency and reliability,” the MTA said in a statement. “When you pay your fares, you help us provide better service to the more than two million New Yorkers who rely on buses every day.”
According to the agency, bus hopping cost the transit system $312 million in 2022 alone – depleting a pot of money that finances about a quarter of the system’s budget.
MTA bus driver Curtis Carrington, 43, who has been driving for nine years, told the Post that fare evasion is so common it’s comical – and scoffed at the idea that drivers should be responsible for enforcing it.
His job, he said, begins and ends with getting passengers safely from point A to point B, nothing more and nothing less.
“I see this all the time – every day,” Carrington said. “Out of a bus full of people, let’s say 10 people got on, maybe two paid.”
“I just look the other way – we’re taught not to fight the fare,” Carrington added. “There are people who have been attacked and stabbed because they fought the fare.”
It remains to be seen whether the inspectors will be more successful in the fight against fare evasion. According to the MTA, inspectors can ask fare evaders to get off or issue them a fine of between $50 and $100.
The inspector service was “soft-rolled” last year, but increased funding in fiscal year 2024 will allow for the hiring of up to 100 inspectors, with staff supported by NYPD officers.
The latest rollout comes as part of an ongoing initiative aimed at returning fares to pre-pandemic levels, which includes fare controls on Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North and crossing guards at subway stations.
An MTA ticket agent in Brooklyn has even taken to announcing blatant lawbreakers over a loudspeaker to attract the attention of police officers patrolling the station.
While the burden of fare enforcement had previously been borne by bus drivers, a new policy changed things in 2008 after a bus driver in Brooklyn was stabbed by a fare dodger, Gothamist reported.
Protected cockpits for bus drivers were introduced in 2023, according to the MTA bus drivers’ union, and are designed to protect drivers from “crazy passengers” who “may reach around partitions and hit or throw objects,” the union said last year.
But the glass barriers did not solve all of the problems on the bus. Last year, an MTA inspector was shot during a dispute over a bus ticket.
To protect its drivers, the MTA should prioritize bulletproof protective cockpits, Carrington told the Post.
“I honestly think it’s a priority for our safety,” he said.
His colleague Arlanda Jones, an MTA bus driver, agreed.
“We don’t even know where they came from. They could have a razor blade,” said Jones, 42. “They could have a knife.”
“People call me a bitch all the time. And I didn’t even do anything. I don’t deserve it – but I still get them to their destination safely. That’s my job. So I take it,” she added.
The expanded rollout this year comes after 46.9% of local bus passengers and 56.6% of SBS bus passengers evaded payments in the first quarter of 2024.
For comparison: During the same period, the fare dodger rate on the subway was 14%.
The new statistics also come at a time when the MTA’s five-year plan calls for a 4% increase in 2025 and another 4% in 2027 – which would bring the price of a single ticket to about $3 and $3.14, respectively.
