February 2019 - Trainsfare

February 26, 2019 Fare Evasion

TTC lost $61M to fare evasion in 2018
Auditors general’s report shows fare evasion costed three times more than the Canadian agency previously said and proposes 27 recommendations to fix the situation

Toronto Transit Commission’s prolonged fare evasion issue does not seem to improve. In 2018, TTC lost $61M to fare evasion, according to Toronto’s auditor general report. This figure implies 5.4% of total passengers skipped the fare. It also triples the estimate the agency has consistently defended over time. The bus is the public transport...

February 19, 2019 Public Transport, Ticketing

Metro de Madrid open fare gates project keeps growing
33 stations keep the fare gates open and only close when a person does not validate the ticket

Metro de Madrid

Last year, Metro de Madrid launched an open fare gates pilot test, keeping the fare gates permanently open for customers, and closing only when someone tries to pass through without validating their ticket. The trial started in February 2018 at Alsacia station and continued at four other stations in late March. Currently, 33 stations...

February 12, 2019 Public Transport

Fare evasion prosecutions fall 96% in New York
Despite the decrease in arrests, fare evasion is still high and costed MTA $215 million in 2018

In February 2018, New York’s District Attorney Office introduced a new policy which decriminalized fare evasion by shifting from court citations to administrative fines. The objective was to “reduce inequality and unnecessary incarceration” for skipping a fare of $2.75 at Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA). A year later, statistics show a drop of 96% fare...

February 5, 2019 Fare Evasion, Safety & Security

Rise in victims for fare evading in Bogotá
During 2018, 13 people died trying to skip the fare at TransMilenio

Fare evasion in TransMilenio caused 13 victims in 2018

Fare evasion is not only a matter of public transport economic sustainability, but also of safety and security. In some networks, skipping the fare can be a very dangerous act and can even cause victims. This is the case of the public bus system TransMilenio in Bogotá, where fare dodgers climb the walls and...