MTA rolls out modern fare enforcement on NYC buses
Credit: Marc A. Hermann / MTA on Flickr
New York City is ramping up efforts to curb bus fare evasion, with agents now using handheld devices to verify payments. During a Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board meeting last week, NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said that with the adoption of the tap-and-go OMNY system, the transit system’s EAGLE fare enforcers will use “onboard validation devices” that check whether customers paid using an OMNY card or cellphone. The technology has been used on Select Bus Service (SBS) routes, where 52.7 percent of riders do not pay, and the MTA now plans to expand its use to all bus routes, including local lines, where fare evasion is 48.6 percent, according to the New York Times.
Fare evasion has long been a problem across the city’s public transit system, with buses experiencing the highest rates. While Crichlow said the agency is “turning the tide” on subway fare evasion through new fare gates and enforcement agents aimed at preventing turnstile jumping, he acknowledged there is “still much work to be done” on buses.
The city’s bus system has the worst fare evasion problem of any major city in the world, costing the transit agency more than $300 million per year, as 6sqft previously reported.
In 2024, 330 subway fares and 710 bus fares were evaded every minute, according to the Citizens Budget Commission. That year, evasion cost the MTA roughly $1 billion, including $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.
“Paying customers have long said that they find it incredibly frustrating when they see other people who do not pay the fare,” Crichlow said. “I can’t agree with them more.”
The EAGLE (Evasion And Graffiti Lawlessness Eradication) team, a group of civilian MTA employees—some of whom are former law enforcement personnel—was created in 2008 alongside the launch of SBS bus service to enforce fare payments. However, the agents had no way to validate MetroCards or confirm whether the correct amount of coins was inserted, and their role had been limited to observing riders at doors and fare boxes.
Now, with the MetroCard officially phased out, the enforcement team members can verify OMNY payment using handheld devices, which Crichlow said do not store any personal banking or identification information. With the rollout of these devices, NYC will join European cities like London and Paris in using similar technology, a change Crichlow described as a “cultural shift.”
Janno Lieber, chairman and CEO of the MTA, supports the new technology, telling the Times that it is the norm in public transit systems in Europe.
“This is modern fare-payment technology, the way it works all over the Western world,” Lieber said. “My brother lives in Europe, and routinely when he gets on, somebody comes up to him and says, ‘Show me how you paid, and let’s validate that you paid.’”
To increase awareness of the EAGLE team and the technology, the MTA will soon post signage throughout the transit system explaining their work.
In 2024, the MTA intensified efforts to curb bus fare evasion, deploying unarmed fare inspectors on local buses who could ask riders who do not pay to leave and, at stops staffed by NYPD officers, potentially face a summons or arrest.
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you all need to police the B41 on flatbush, B35 on church Ave the B44 sbs and local on nostrand ave ,especially between 3 and 6pm
ok, so what happens when someone doesn’t pay and refuses to get off? These aren’t police, so how will they throw out the fare evader? Are they going to stop the bus until they get off making everyone indefinitely delayed? How will they deal with the mentally ill, homeless, and dangerous riders?
This seems like another waste of resources that throws money out the window to “fix” fare evasion that actually accomplishes very little.
i applaud this 💯 per cent i love to see when the transit officers out there doing their thing, but it don’t be consistent. it hurts when you see commuters walking & coming on the bus without paying & will occupy a seat & u that pay can’t get a seat.Another thing,the # 12 bus line in Brooklyn, it has to two hospitals,nursing home & senior citizens homes along the routes & the service sucks on that bus line
thats funny because today I saw 57 people get on bus and train for free. where is the enforcement,?
nothing worse them a thief.
Ridiculous. Now they r driving and riding motorcycles and motorized bikes. Good luck NYC
When they r on the bus or train usually asking for money 🤑
Typical MTA…always years before they decide to do something that should have been done from the very beginning of SBS.
They short change themselves and then cry poverty to raise fares and tolls while instituting a $9 toll to drive through Manhattan from South Ferry to 60th Street! Janno Lieber needs to be fired immediately; Demetrius Crichlow must be demoted back to conductor, considering he started his career as the same hourly he now scrapes of his shoe, a federal overseer needs to step in and see where all the federal funding and fares/ bridge and tunnel tolls go; not to mention the Hochul-Lieber congestion pricing money goes! There is ongoing massive fraud occurring and the taxpayers are the ones getting slammed daily.
we’ll worry about fairvision why don’t we stop the fighting and then nonsense on the buses nobody’s going to pay nobody cares but the stabbing people on buses they’re spitting on people on buses that they’re fighting with bus drivers they’re being disrespectful and rude but that’s not enforce that let’s worry about $3
I tap using a credit/debit card on the rare occasion that I board a bus or train. How would that get read by a fare inspector’s device, and would it be safe to allow my card to be read?
Won’t their salaries out weigh the fare beaters?
So the enforcement agent finds a person-student who hasn’t paid. How are they going to make them pay if he-she then is set to get off at their stop? And what about the others the agent misses?
I was almost forced to hop the train yesterday, because my Omni card would not work on any of the machines. this whole new Omni system is plainly stupid, they replaced multiple MetroCard machines and then put less Omni machines, so a location that had 3 or 4 machines now only has one Omni machine, and then even if you fill up the card and have proof of payment and your card doesn’t work, even if there is a worker, they won’t let you through, so what is there left? go search for another station to go in? hop the train? keep tapping until you crash out? it took over2minutes to finally get one of the machines that I had already tried, to actually freaking work and let me through; which put me about 10 to 15 minutes behind schedule, because I missed my train. the MTA wants to talk about how much money they’re losing, how much money did it waste converting it to these new fare cards? how much money will they waste getting new gate doors? there’s already turnstiles that let one person through at a time, the MTA just loves to waste money, jack up the fare, and then complain about the riders.
yup they SAY IT DONT STORE your bank information, How do people know that’s true? They are scanning the info from your phone, what proof is there it is automatically deleted and that the city or person scanning is not keeping that info on their device
ENFORCEMT ON BUSES IS GREAT; just be prepared for violent democrat resistance——- the lawless ones are out of control
First of all, just because they do this in europe doesn’t mean it needs to be done here in the good old u.
s. of a. Second, that means either. I have to keep my card out when I might lose it or get snatched, and then show it again.? last but not least, they need the fire.Mister J Liber. effective yesterday.
this is probably gonna end up happening here in Philadelphia too… riders don’t be paying on SEPTA buses & trains/trolleys either…
Aggressive bus and train fare enforcement will disproportionately harm Black Americans already facing higher unemployment, housing instability, and over-policing. Criminalizing poverty through transit enforcement only increases arrests, records, and systemic barriers. Public transportation should be treated as an essential service, with exemptions or reduced fares for low-income, homeless, unemployed, and vulnerable residents—not another pipeline into the criminal justice system.
Even funnier is the fact that Mandami ran for mayor with the promise of free buses and now his people implement this. The joke is on his SUPPORTERS! LMAO
with all the rhetoric about fare evasion, what about the service we commuters face, fare hikes, decreased service, safety, homeless people on the platforms and trains, e.t.c. I’m all for the fare evasion efforts, but you must also realize that people are fed up with raising transit fares and
They need to ride all buses in STATEN ISLAND 24/7 That’s where they loosing money nobody pays on Staten ISLAND buses the bus drivers always say thank you to me and my family we the only ones who always pay. Ever stop the bus drivers make people just walk on ,that’s so Disrespectful, Disgusting No Morals, Consideration for Society,The Eagle Team needs to ride Staten ISLAND buses On Daily Basis it’s really out of control in Staten ISLAND..