MBTA to crack down on commuter rail fare dodgers
PHOTO/SAM BONACCI
The MBTA will be focusing on fare collection on the commuter rail.
The MBTA's commuter rail operator has proposed building fare gates at three key Boston railroad stations as part of a strategy to boost revenue by collecting millions of dollars in fares that riders are currently avoiding.
Keolis Commuter Services would be willing to invest the estimated $10 million to build fare gates at North, South and Back Bay stations if the MBTA rearranged "the current way things are managed around revenue," Keolis Deputy General Manager Franck DuBourdieu told reporters Monday.
MBTA officials on Monday also laid out plans to curb the millions of dollars in revenues lost to fare evasion on the Green Line, buses and commuter rail.
The fare gates would check to see whether commuter rail passengers have a ticket for both outbound and inbound trains, according to Peter Williams, who is heading up the initiative for Keolis and presented his ideas to the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board on Monday.
The current fare collection method - where conductors check tickets on board trains, and one conductor covers two coaches during peak periods - allows for a variety of fare evasion methods as well as fares uncollected for other reasons, according to commuter rail officials.
Keolis conducted what it said was the first fare evasion survey March 1 and 2, finding that between 15 and 20 percent of passengers are not paying the correct fares. The commuter rail is expected to generate about $215 million in revenue in fiscal 2016 and the fare-gate strategy is estimated to generate an additional $24 million annually.
Asked how much of the $24 million would be shared with Keolis, MBTA Chief Administrator Brian Shortsleeve said, "We haven't had those discussions yet." He said there could be "sharing to some extent" on revenue targets and said he hoped to increase commuter rail revenues to as much as $280 million annually.
Williams estimated about $35 million in uncollected fare revenue, and said in systems similar to the MBTA commuter rail, fare evasion levels of 10 to 25 percent are not unusual. MBTA Control Board Chairman Joseph Aiello called those rates "pretty astounding" and said Keolis's plan is "terrific."
In its first year holding the contract, the French railroad company lost nearly $30 million, according to its financial disclosures.
Dubbed a "ring of steel," the fare-gate strategy would take an estimated 15 months to put into place, according to Keolis, which could in the shorter term implement "blitzes" of ticket checks along specific lines or stations.
The company also suggested granting additional powers to its conductors, such as enabling them to issue citations, Williams said. Williams said some passengers make recordings of the mobile phone tickets to fool conductors into believing the rider has an activated mobile ticket.
Amtrak, which runs inter-state service out of Boston, checks tickets ahead of boarding at some stations.
The MBTA also estimated fare evasion on the Green Line costing $1.3 million to $4.5 million, and fare evasion on buses costing between $1 million and $2.4 million. The information presented Monday represents the first time the MBTA has quantified the cost of fare evasion, Shortsleeve said.
A little less than half the Green Line's $95 million in fare revenues comes in through surface stations, where almost all the stations lack automated fare gates. At surface stations, passengers pay at the front of the trolley.
In 2014 after significant frustrations and longer boarding times, the MBTA discontinued a roughly two-year policy of front-door-only boarding where passengers would need to pass by the fare box to board, according to MBTA Director of Operations Analysis Brian Kane.
Over 11 days in February and March, the T dispatched employees to surface Green Line stations inspecting riders' cards with a mobile fare validator and directing those without monthly passes to use the front doors of the trolleys. About 27 percent of the 20,835 fares used stored value as opposed to monthly passes.
Kane suggested an 8-week pilot to validate fares at every surface Green Line station during the morning rush hour.
Aiello said he preferred moving ahead on the next generation of fare collection technology.
"Let's get 2.0. Let's get it right. Let's move it fast," Aiello said.
Bus fare evasion could be decreased through the next generation of automated fare collection technology, according to Kane's presentation. Kane said he agreed with the approach of developing a new fare collection system to address fare evasion.
Kane said completely eliminating fare evasion on trolley systems is "very rarely achieved outside of totalitarian dictatorships."
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