By Gus Saltonstall
An Upper West Side train station will soon get new subway gates aimed at reducing fare evasion.
On Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the expansion of a subway gate pilot program that recently produced a fare evasion decline by an average of 35 percent at the 20 stations where the new gates were installed.
The MTA is expanding the pilot program to 20 more stations, including the West 72nd Street and Broadway 1, 2, and 3 station. Work is expected to begin on installing the gates this month, and the gates are expected to be fully installed at the Upper West Side station by the end of 2026.
The new gates remove the turnstile element of entering a train station. After you tap your OMNY Card or payment method, the gates swing open, and you walk through.
“The data is clear: these new fare gates have created a better riding experience for customers and made it harder for would-be fare evaders to enter the system without paying,” Hochul said in a news release. “Now, we’re ramping up our plan to install these world-class fare gates across the subway system so even more riders can benefit.”
The West 72nd Street and Broadway station will be the first on the Upper West Side to have the fare gates installed.
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How are these leading to less fare evasion? Whenever I use these, there are always people waiting to go through directly behind someone. I never see this with turnstiles.
A half a dozen people will walk through as soon as the door opens
I was wondering about this too. How long do they stay open?
Not very long, but obviously a determined individual could probably still squeeze by. I’ve used them at other stations and MTA has reported it cuts down on evasion.
I appreciate that they are trying to hard to deal with this, as it has been ignored for too long. It is very frustrating to see countless people avoid fares with no penalties.
That being said, I’m not sure this is the answer. I assume that purchasing, installing and maintaining these is not cheap. The first time one or more break, it will cause a huge problem.
I would periodically station someone there who has the authority to do something – many stations have people there to help who are doing nothing at all and completely ignore people hopping turnstiles or going through doors. Also set up cameras facing the turnstiles to put the fear in people that they are being seen. Seems easy.
The people stationed at the turnstiles are not going to risk their well-being by stopping people who jump over them – they can only serve as possibly a deterrent (ineffectively). Unless we had seriously armed people who were prepared to chase violators down the platforms, I don’t think stationing people there can help. I don’t think chases on subway platforms are a good idea either, just as the police won’t do high-speed car chases in the city. The chase itself can be a huge risk.
I guess the number of assaults are going to go up on the UWS. People are going to “back pack” themselves behind other people who pay the fare. I for one will not stand for it, and I will certainly take physical action when someone rubs up behind me like that.
Thank you Hochul for another idea that will waste money and not solve the problem.
When these were first rolled out, women with baby strollers were getting stuck in the gates, leaving crying children behind on the opposite side. Not to mention, teenagers were easily slipping under them—all while guards stood right at the gates. Why not use these funds and technology to install safety walls at the tracks instead?
Waste of money. Most of the fare evasion is on buses.