{"id":175424,"date":"2026-03-26T00:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/175424\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T00:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:59:07","slug":"mta-calls-modern-fare-gates-a-success-but-official-ducks-question-on-numbers-take-the-fifth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/175424\/","title":{"rendered":"MTA calls ‘modern’ fare gates a success, but official ducks question on numbers: ‘Take the fifth’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The MTA boasted that its \u201cmodern\u201d fare gate pilot was a success on Wednesday \u2014 touting drops in fare evasion using limited data while ducking questions about how much the $1.1 billion system<\/a> will actually cut down on the problem.<\/p>\n

At a board meeting, officials flashed a chart claiming the towering glass paddles have cut fare beating by anywhere from 19% to 70%, depending on the station. But those numbers came from a single week of data on a pilot that has been running for more than three months.<\/p>\n

Jamie Torres\u2011Springer, president of MTA Construction & Development, admitted the agency didn\u2019t even have working technology to measure evasion when the first gates went live in December.<\/p>\n

The MTA is testing three different gate designs at 20 stations in New York City. Michael Nagle for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a sample of the data that we showed. It\u2019s pretty consistent across the board,\u201d he said, explaining that the agency\u2019s camera\u2011based system needed \u201ctraining\u201d before staff felt confident in the results. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have more data shortly,\u201d Torres-Springer added.<\/p>\n

When one board member asked Deputy Chief of Staff Cathy Li how much the new gates would shave off the MTA\u2019s about $350 million<\/a> a year in subway fare evasion, Chair Janno Lieber jumped in before she could answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to interrupt and take the fifth on that one,\u201d Lieber said. \u201cWe have to see more data before we can have confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The floundering pilot has also sent riders to the hospital. <\/p>\n

Several people have been caught in the doors, including a 5\u2011year\u2011old girl<\/a> whose head was trapped long enough that she had to be taken to the emergency room with swelling. Lieber made headlines when he blamed the girl\u2019s mom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

People have been able to crawl under the gates designed to keep fare beaters out of the system. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

MTA General Counsel Paige Graves told board members the authority has already been put on notice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith respect to lawsuits, we have received some notices of claims, but no actual lawsuits at the moment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Lieber brushed off the legal risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MTA gets sued every day, all day,\u201d he said, adding that similar gates are used in other \u201cfirst\u2011class world transit systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riders were seen climbing over the gates shortly after install. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

He insisted the agency is learning from the pilots and making adjustments.<\/p>\n

Li tried to lean into the viral videos of New Yorkers hurdling and crawling under the 6\u2011foot\u2011tall paddles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we have many creative New Yorkers who have been able to get over and under and they\u2019ve loved sharing that with us on social media,\u201d she said. Still, she argued, \u201cmost New Yorkers are not training for the high jump Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe realize that it\u2019s going to be very difficult to crack down on 100% of fare evasion,\u201d Li said. \u201cBut these new gates really eliminate the major sources of fare evasion that we see with our turnstiles and our exit gates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Li said the MTA has already tweaked the \u201cpaddle reaction times\u201d and the gates\u2019 sensors to better detect backpacks and luggage, calling the rollout a \u201clearning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

MTA officials adjusted how quickly the paddles close and open after riders were caught between the doors. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cLike the introduction of any new technology there\u2019s going to be a learning curve,\u201d Li said.<\/p>\n

The gates are now installed at 20 stations, with plans to expand to 150 stations by 2029. <\/p>\n

Lieber framed the pricey project as a morale-builder for paying riders. <\/p>\n

\u201cUpdating fare gates is one of the most impactful things we can do to encourage fare payment and rebuild New Yorkers\u2019 morale,\u201d he said, calling fare evasion \u201ca fundamental morale issue\u201d as well as a financial one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The MTA boasted that its \u201cmodern\u201d fare gate pilot was a success on Wednesday \u2014 touting drops in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[57,141,9,24,55,54,56,87,615,25637,58],"class_list":["post-175424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-metro","tag-mta","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-politics","tag-subway","tag-subway-fare","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}