New subway fare gates cut evasion by 73% at some stations

Modern fare gates installed at 20 subway stations as part of a pilot program reduced fare evasion by an average of 35% in the first half of the year, according to the MTA and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office.

The gates were designed to improve access for riders using wheelchairs or pushing strollers and luggage, while also making it harder for people to enter without paying. Hochul’s office said more than 63 million people have passed through the gates.

The gates have saloon-style doors, and use sensors and cameras to detect whether someone has paid. They also are designed to close after a person walks through without injuring them.

Three companies are part of the pilot program: Cubic, Conduent and S Traffic. Cubic, the company behind OMNY, had the strongest results at two stations with some of the highest fare evasion rates, according to the governor’s office.

At Hoyt Street on the 2 and 3 lines and Nostrand Avenue on the A and C lines, Cubic’s gates helped reduce fare evasion by more than 70%, Hochul’s office said. Conduent also saw significant drops, while S Traffic — a Korean company — saw more modest results.

The governor’s office said the MTA is preparing to install the fare gates at another 30 stations. The three companies will compete for two contracts, and the MTA eventually plans to install the gates at 150 stations over the coming years.

Some subway riders said they support the change.

“The fare gates, I think they’re kind of nice,” straphanger Lisa Brown said. “Because there’s no getting through those bad boys. So, yeah, they did good.”

Subway rider Janet Oak said the gates address people who avoid paying even when they can afford the fare.

“Some people really cannot pay. You know, and I can kind of understand,” Oak said. “But even people who can afford to pay, they would just slip in. So I think this is great.”

Rider Keith Nicholas said the gates don’t eliminate every opportunity for someone to avoid paying.

“If somebody taps, they would like… it would be open for a couple seconds. Somebody else could walk through, or if somebody is leaving it could be open, somebody could walk through,” Nicholas said. “But it’s still better than having the spikes over the turnstiles.”

He was referring to the serrated fins the MTA put at turnstiles to prevent people from jumping over. The MTA has also pointed to emergency exit gates as a major source of fare evasion. MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber has called them the “superhighway of fare evasion,” and the MTA said the exit gates were responsible for more than 50% of fare evasion.

The new fare gates eliminate the need for those exit gates, according to the MTA.

Subway fare evasion was about 10% as of July, compared with nearly half of bus riders not paying, the MTA said.

There is $1.1 billion in the MTA’s current capital plan approved in 2025 to pay for the fare gates.