From the Daily News:For years, NYC Transit has wildly underestimated how often riders beat the fare, which cheats the cash-crunched agency out of millions of dollars, the Daily News has learned.
Fare-beaters jump turnstiles or enter through emergency exit gates about 19 million times a year, a new agency analysis shows.
That's far more than the old estimate of about 5 million a year, which went out the window in April, when agency bean counters changed the way they tally scofflaws.
The lost revenue is staggering.
Fare-beating deprived NYC Transit of approximately $27 million last year alone, based on an average subway fare of $1.48, according to the new analysis.
Under the old method of estimating fare-beating, the agency believed it was losing about $7 million a year.
The lost revenue is even larger than the amount the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to save with subway service cuts that are scheduled to go into effect soon to help plug a large budget gap.
And the cops have cut back on arrests of farebeaters.
19 comments:
This is a diversion headline planted by the MTA to take the heat off their corruption and mismanagement, which cost us exponentially more than turnstile jumpers.
How did they suddenly come up with these new "accurate" figures only with their backs against the wall, when they were never able to do so back when every booth was manned?
Beating a fare while riding a bike on the subway--what won't these hip-stars do!
-Reginald Greg Balzac
June 3, 1861.
And what is the NYPD doing to address this? They're the ones who prevent fare evasion.
agree with anonymous #1. this is a load of crap to get us to accept fare hikes.
the truth is that the working people of NYC paid for the Subway system many times over in our taxes.
when you buy anything at a store you pay taxes and then it is taken out of your paycheck, look at your utility bill. see the MTA surcharge on your utility bill?
Mike Quill where are you?
bring back the token clerks instead of making the subways pre 1980's dangerous.
the MTA is full of crap.
Probably a load of crap, but as long as we're talking about thieves, how about all the out-of-state license plates, illegal tenants. If everyone paid their fare share, maybe we wouldn't be losing police officers, teachers and firefighters. Maybe our taxes wouldn't be so high because the city and state would be in better shape financially. Why should be pay for the rule breakers?
Probably a load of crap, but as long as we're talking about thieves, how about all the out-of-state license plates, illegal tenants. If everyone paid their fare share, maybe we wouldn't be losing police officers, teachers and firefighters. Maybe our taxes wouldn't be so high because the city and state would be in better shape financially. Why should be pay for the rule breakers?
I agree with paying your fair share, but in case no one noticed even when you pay your fair share, IT'S JUST NEVER ENOUGH. Look at water rates, they went up because people actually conserved. There's no end to these ticks that attach themselves to our money. So eventually people stop caring.
Just last Friday morning I was about to exit the Fulton Street station in lower Manhattan when half a dozen mooks nearly knocked me over with their turnstile hurdle leaping.
Bring back Giuliani.
they should look at themselves instead of pointing the finger.
How much would it cost to post at least one cop at every turnstile area in every station 24/7? Even if we had enough cops to do so, the costs would be much more than the lost revenue, and they wouldn't possibly be able to catch every farebeater.
The cops should go after the fare beaters who enter the backdoor of the bus. They quickly sneak in the back when they think the bus driver is not looking.
Nevertheless, the MTA will always have some excuse to raise the fare. New fare increases are never enough.
And what is the NYPD doing to address this?
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Why don't you ask the two officers who were shot at 21 Street/Queensbridge back in October 2008, when a farebeater they were attempting to apprehend fought with the officers and grabbed one of their guns from them.
Job hazard of being a cop.
Where DID that picture come from, Crappie? It must be ancient - I haven't seen turnstiles like that in years.
From a Google search.
Don't blame the honest New Yorkers that pay their way everyday to go to work and school. Blame the MTA for not having the manpower to police these Farebeaters. If the MTA didn't get rid of all the station masters and token booth clerks, this would be a non-issue. Stop penalizing the honest people. Start prosecuting the criminals, which starts at the top of the MTA.
If the fare was affordable we wouldn't see to much problems
The MTA is a joke
train the cameras at the turnstiles to insure the freeloaders are caught on film. I am sure the same folks are doing this daily. Review tapes, ID the suspects and await their arrival and arrest them with multiple incidents of non-payment and hit them with 1K fines and 30 days subway work-detail to work it all off.
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