With over 1 million daily riders and only 69 stations… It would only take 5 and a half years to pay that back. If they last 30 years then that is nearly a 6 fold return on investment.

TAP has been available for about a year now. Granted, most people with TAP cards do not tap on a validator, but that should change with gates. The data the agency collects with TAP enforcement has invaluable worth when it comes to route planning, train frequency, future allocation of resources, etc.

RE: the Stanger report, every point was refuted by MTA. Will there be issues/problems with gates as they are introduced to an open system for the first time? Of course. But Los Angeles is the only subway system in the country without a barrier system. I’m glad we’re taking steps to catch up.

Even with TAP cards– I”ve been guilty of this–I hold a monthly pass, but if I am running for the train or being absent-minded that day, I sometimes, don’t bother passing my card over the reader. I will do so on my way out so that the trip is counted somewhere, but it’ll be counted at North Hollywood instead of 7th street. Bad. So the turnstiles will stop me that from happening. Given how many of us wind up running for the train, I have trouble believing I am the only one who does that.

A 2007 article puts fare evasion higher, though I wonder if the study was somehow skewed to make fare gates look better.

Orange Line weekdays and Sunday: 5%
Orange Line saturday: 6%

At these levels on POP lines right now, the worst fare evasion rate is 8%. For one thing, this is not a critical level. Second, the fare gates are being installed on the Red Line (subway), which has a lower than average fare evasion rate on weekdays and average on weekends.

Also, I’ve been having a hard time finding a study online about which method was better: fare barriers or proof-of-payment? It had surveyed about two dozen North American agencies, including Los Angeles, with a sample of both fare-enforcement methods.

All the agencies reported had more than 90% rates of compliance. No agency reported 100% compliance.

When fare gates and POP were averaged together, the fare gate systems had an advantage of only 1-2 percentage points over POP. The fare gate systems were not uniformly better, as a few POP systems had better compliance rates than some of the worse gated systems.

The report said the 1-2 percent difference was not statistically significant enough to determine conclusively that one system was better than another. Also, the report implied that switching costs are too high, and advised transit agencies to stick with the systems they have.

No system has ever reported 100% compliance, so Metro is basing calculations on assumptions no agency has ever reached. At best, Metro can only hope to reduce subway fare delinquency to 2.4% — which would likely be one of the best rates in North America. It’s an admirable goal, but ludicrous at the same time.

The Green Line can also be sealed off, since it is entirely elevated. It has worse than average delinquency, yet 2% only pushes it to average or above average. The Gold Line has the lowest fare delinquency rates, and only about half of the stations can be gated.

The Blue Line has higher than average rates, yet there are only 6 or so stations that can be plausibly sealed off with gates. Fare barriers can be easily avoided here, so they’d be useless.

If you used Richard Stanger’s calculations of fare recovery and estimated loss of revenue, and figured a $100 million capital investment for the gates, maintenance and fare-card system integration, Metro would need the gates in place for 37 years to recover the costs of the system.

http://www.metro.net/board/Items/2008/02_February/20080228RBMItem36.pdf

“Electronic trip data can be retrieved and provides
evidence of where and when the offender entered the system.”

And drivers throw a fit when anyone suggests installing a GPS tracker on their car to figure out how much they drive for the purpose of a VMT tax. Transit riders take this stuff lying down.

But it’s not like proof of payment systems can ever catch criminals…

http://laist.com/2009/08/17/year-long_murder_suspect_caught_dur.php

Yeah, let’s move from police officers checking fares to blind turnstiles. *rolls eyes*

“Is it clear how the two fare
systems [Metrolink and Metro] will
work together?

UFS was designed to be a regional system
and Metrolink is a TAP participant who
received regional funding to become
compatible. How the systems will work
together is based on business rules and fare
policies.”

Metrolink is not implementing TAP. They have stated that it is cost prohibitive.

“What will be the fare media costs
and passenger inconvenience to
Metrolink riders.

Fare media costs were not considered as part
of the Faregating Analysis since smartcard
fare media will be required regardless of fare
gates. Fare media is not a deterrent to patron
convenience. Metro pass riders transferring to
Muni operators must carry a separate
interagency transfer today, and vice versa.”

Metrolink riders do not have to carry a separate interagency transfer today. All one-way, round-trip, 10-trip and monthly passes are also EZ-Transit passes which allow full use of Metro Rail on the day or month the ticket is good for.

Since Metrolink is not moving to TAP, they have to utilize resources to get customers who transfer to Metro rail and bus lines on TAP. First, transfers for one-way and round-trip riders are being discontinued and this will go into effect once the fare gates are operational. Second, 10-trip and monthly passholders will have to get TAP cards. On their Metrolink pass there will be a coupon code that can be used to load a monthly Metro pass onto their TAP card for “free” (actually, Metrolink riders partially pay for the cost of transfers in the ticket or pass price whether they transfer or not).

From then on monthly and 10-trip ticket holders will have to carry two passes if they intend to transfer to Metro. One-way and round-trip riders will have to purchase separate one-way tickets or day passes to transfer, further increasing the cost and inconvenience of taking public transit. Metrolink has decided that they can only support their bread and butter passengers, which are monthly passholders. This is good for retaining ridership, but is it good for growing ridership?

We should be working toward a system that is as easy to use as possible. We need interagency cooperation, not a system that is even more fragmented than it is now.