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MTA tells NYC students to join the hot new trend: Paying the fare
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Jun 21, 2024
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Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Jun 21, 2024
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This column originally appeared in On The Way, a weekly newsletter covering everything you need to know about NYC-area transportation.
Sign up to get the full version, which includes answers to reader questions, trivia, service changes and more, in your inbox every Thursday.
The MTA has a new strategy in its war on fare evasion: convincing New York City students to pay the fare.
This past weekend, I had the chance to interview outgoing NYC Transit President Richard Davey. Our conversation mostly focused on the $15 billion hole in the MTA budget caused by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s pause on congestion pricing. But Davey also shared an interesting observation about fare beating: It tends to spike around 3 p.m., when school is dismissed.
“It's actually not fare evasion because these kids already have prepaid cards. They don't want to swipe for whatever reason, so the fare evasion numbers are probably a little elevated as a result,” Davey said.
That got me thinking – are students with MetroCards who can’t be bothered to swipe partly driving the MTA’s supposed “existential threat” of fare beating?
As a father of two, I can confirm that many kids don’t bother swiping their free student MetroCards. My son lost his MetroCard and can’t be bothered to replace it. My daughter tries to use her MetroCard, but it’s so crumpled it no longer works.
Enter the MTA’s Extra Credit campaign, which is trying to sell students on the appeal of MetroCards (or later this year, free OMNY cards). Last month, the agency began giving away a free virtual reality Meta Quest 2 headset each week to a random high school student who uses their student MetroCard and has perfect attendance that week.
“Our hope is to create a buzz around swiping while encouraging regular usage,” Chantel Cabrera, senior director of subways for coordination and solutions, said at last month’s MTA board meeting. “We hope to bring a holistic approach to promoting fare compliance that engages our youth.”
Cabrera’s remarks might have a “How do you do, fellow kids?” vibe, but the stakes are real. MTA data shows fare evasion continues to rise, with 13.6% of subway riders skipping the fare and nearly half of bus riders not paying. The MTA expects to lose $285 million to subway fare evasion this year and $315 million to fare evasion on buses. Exactly how many of those fare beaters are students isn’t clear. But MTA Chair Janno Lieber has indicated he believes students are among the scofflaws at the turnstiles.
“They have their student MetroCard in their pocket. So there's a lack of education and culture and understanding of what it means to fare evade,” Lieber has said. “And we're going to work on that because they're part of New York. We need them to play by the same rules as everybody else.”
This week in New York City transit news
Listen here:
- Following Hochul's last-minute decision to indefinitely pause congestion pricing, the MTA has stopped work on the Second Avenue subway extension into East Harlem -- mere hours after the governor herself said the long-sought project would proceed.
- In March 2022, Tyler Greer crashed his souped-up red Infiniti into an onlooker while doing donuts in the middle of a crowd of street racing fans in Lower Manhattan. He pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment and hasn't had a license since. And yet, he has since been accused of more crimes behind the wheel.
- Drivers who block bus stops will soon be ticketed under a new program using cameras mounted to the front of MTA buses, transit officials announced on Monday.
- How will Hochul find the “alternative funding” to proceed with construction projects to improve NYC’s subway system despite a pause on congestion pricing? Here’s a look at her options.
- Aside from a slew of MTA subway projects now halted because of the congestion pricing pause, the future of more than $100 million in projects to combat air pollution in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods is also in jeopardy.
- Last week, Hochul faced criticism after she proposed a ban on certain types of face masks on the NYC subway as health advocates were quick to point out the continued necessity of masking.
- Can you put a price on the time New Yorkers lose sitting in traffic? The number the Riders Alliance came up with was $20 billion annually.
Curious Commuter
Question from Martin, from Brooklyn
Why do my trains run at such slow speeds sometimes? It feels like an amusement park monorail sometimes but other days it’s normal. I usually take the B or Q from Brooklyn to Manhattan and vice versa.
What Clayton says
There are two main reasons subway trains crawl along the tracks: traffic and track work. Train operators we spoke with say subway tracks are easily gummed up on some lines during rush hour, which causes the whole system to slow down. But the “amusement park monorail” speeds Martin may be noticing are largely the product of maintenance and construction work on the tracks. When a crew is on the roadbed, subway operators are typically prohibited from running their train at more than 10 mph. That’s true even if the train is running on a track adjacent to the workers. Trains sometimes move even slower when workers have to “clear up,” or go into spaces right next to the tracks to let a train pass by a worksite.
Have a question for us? Curious Commuter questions are exclusive for On The Way newsletter subscribers. Sign up for free here and check Thursday’s newsletter for a link to submit your questions!
Tagged
new york city
transportation
On The Way
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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