JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A former Jacksonville Transportation Authority employee alleges the agency used workers and open Skyway stations to make ridership numbers appear higher than they were.
The allegations come one day after JTA confirmed it received a subpoena from the Florida attorney general’s office seeking records, including ridership information for the Skyway and NAVI autonomous vehicle program.
The former employee spoke exclusively with News4JAX but asked not to be identified, citing fear of retaliation.
The employee said JTA managers and higher-level staff were instructed to ride NAVI regularly and, in some cases, submit reports documenting their trips.
“Managers and above were required to ride NAVI at least once a week,” the former employee said. “Some of us actually had to submit a report based on ridership, and there was even a written schedule.”
The former employee, who was laid off amid a nearly $40 million budget shortfall, said the practice continued for months and that employees made up a significant portion of NAVI’s ridership during that time.
“They could never even figure out the ridership numbers,” the former employee said. “Most of the ridership was employees.”
JTA strongly denies that it recruited employees to artificially increase ridership.
In a statement to News4JAX, the agency said:
“At no time did the JTA recruit employees to ‘boost ridership.’ When the NAVI service initially launched, a limited number of JTA employees served as NAVI ambassadors during peak hours to help customers become familiar with the service and technology and to gather feedback to inform future updates and enhancements.”
The former employee also alleged that Skyway stations remained open when trains were not operating, allowing turnstiles to count people entering the stations even if they did not board a train.
“There are several times where there isn’t a train running on one end of the Skyway or the other,” the former employee said. “That way, we could report inflated numbers to the federal government for budget money.”
JTA disputes that claim, saying Skyway riders are counted when they enter and exit the system through turnstiles, not when they board individual trains.
The agency said turnstile counts are collected daily at the close of business. JTA also said stations are secured each evening and that the turnstiles are located behind locked, roll-down gates.
Ridership data is among the information criminal investigators are seeking in the attorney general’s subpoena, which covers records from October 2023 through October 2025.
The former employee also alleged that senior JTA management knew employees were being directed to ride NAVI and that Skyway stations were being left open.
“All of the upper management, senior management knew about it,” the former employee said. “They chose to leave it open to inflate the numbers on purpose.”
JTA said it has no information indicating that ridership data was intentionally altered or inflated.
The Jacksonville City Council is planning to launch an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding JTA’s budget shortfall.
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