MTA Reports Slight Decrease in Fare Evasion Across New York Transit

New York City, NY – The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced Monday that fare evasion has slightly decreased in the subway system, despite ongoing challenges. In the first quarter of this year, fare evasion dropped to 9.8%, down from 13.6% during the same period in 2024.

This modest decline comes as the MTA prepares to implement new modern fare gates at 20 subway stations later this year. The initiative is part of a $1 billion investment in the MTA’s capital budget for 2025-2029 aimed at increasing fare compliance.

However, many offenders may avoid financial penalties due to a new state law that grants first-time fare evaders a warning instead of a $100 fine. Officials noted that approximately 85% of fare evasion incidents this year resulted only in warnings.

On city buses, the fare evasion situation showed slight improvement as well, with approximately 44% of patrons not paying for rides during the first quarter, down from 47.8% the previous year. MTA leaders expressed cautious optimism regarding this data.

Bernard Jackson, the New York City chief operating officer, praised the efforts of the EAGLE team, which conducts fare evasion enforcement on buses. He stated, “I think we need to give the team a round of applause for all the efforts that are involved in that.”

Demetrius Crichlow, president of NYCT, added, “When you see ridership increase like that, it’s pretty exciting.” Despite the slight improvements, the MTA estimated a loss of around $700 million last year due to fare evasion.

Currently, the agency is not seeing the same revenue from fare evasion summonses in the first half of this year. The Transit Adjudication Bureau reported that about $6 million in fines have been collected so far this year, compared to an average of more than $8 million in previous years.