Following the city’s implementation of half moon turnstiles and other measures—like delaying exit gate egress—to fight fare evasion, unpaid fares dropped 26% from June 2024 through December 2024. Still, these efforts are not enough to fully address the persistent problem.
According to the Citizens Budget Commission’s (CBC) latest report, the MTA lost out on $1 billion of revenue from fare evasion. The losses are divided into $568 million in unpaid bus fares, $350 million in unpaid subway fares, at least $46 million in unpaid commuter rail tickets, and at least $51 million in unpaid tolls.
Even so, fare evasions are steadily declining in comparison to prior year’s statistics. Subway fare evasion dropped from 14% to 10% between the first quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.
If this trend continues, which is critical for the MTA to close its $800 million structural operating budget gap, the CBC projects under one billion in losses in 2025 (around $900 million).
The more riders pay their fares, the better service and support the MTA can provide. Moreover, it avoids “unfairly [shifting] more of the cost burden of the MTA’s $20 billion operating budget to other riders, drivers, and taxpayers,” wrote CBC.
Fare evasion efforts weren’t just installed in the subways, but the city’s buses too. Over the last year, MTA has increased its use of Evasion and Graffiti Lawlessness Eradication (EAGLE) Team inspectors to combat bus fare evasion, effectively decreasing evasion rates down from 48% to 44%.
Yet, even with such progress, the bigger picture of a $1 billion loss is startling. To put into different terms, 330 subway fares and 710 bus fares were evaded every single minute in 2024.
To scale down fare evasions further, the CBC has advised the MTA to follow specific recommendations to build upon the four-pronged approach: enforcement, environment, education, and equity that was set in 2023 at the MTA’s Blue-Ribbon Panel on Fare Evasion.
In direct words, CBC recommends the MTA:
- Refine and continue its multi-faceted approach to tackle fare evasion
- Accelerate the rollout of new faregates and a proof-of-payment system
- Publish comprehensive and regular data assessing the MTA’s progress at reducing fare evasion
- Assess the cost-effectiveness of enforcement efforts
- Work with the City to assess the cost-effectiveness of, and consider expanding, Fair Fares NYC
Find more data from the CBC report here.