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Fare evasion: MTA honcho says pilot of ‘European’ enforcement model
still focused on Select Bus Service
Ethan Stark-Miller
4–5 minutes

A top MTA official said on Wednesday that the agency has shifted in its
approach to piloting a new “European model” for enforcing against bus
fare evasion — now testing devices to validate electronic payments
mostly on select bus service (SBS) rather than local bus routes.

The official, New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow, made
the revelation during a news conference following this month’s MTA board
meeting.

Crichlow’s remarks came after his April announcement that the agency’s
bus fare enforcement squads, known as Evasion And Graffiti Lawlessness
Eradication (EAGLE) Teams, had begun using handheld technology to check
if riders paid for their trips via the OMNY tap-and-pay system on local
buses.

Fare enforcement agents can use the “Onboard Validation Devices,” which
resemble smartphones, to scan riders’ OMNY cards, credit/debit cards, or
phones to verify if they paid. They then use seperate devices to issue
summonses to those found to have dodged the fare.

But on Wednesday, Crichlow said the agency is now mainly testing the
practice on SBS routes, which act as the city’s form of bus rapid
transit, for two reasons. He said it is still being piloted on some
local buses, which account for most of the system, as well.

“We are transitioning or ramping up a lot of the service on the [SBS]
lines,” Crichlow said. “We’ve been focusing a lot of efforts there for a
couple of different reasons. One, people kind of expect to get checked
on the [SBS] lines. But also, it allows us to train our folks on a new
technology. And it allows us to be able to ramp things up before we go
back to a more heavy presence on the local lines.”

The agency had originally piloted its electronic proof of payment on SBS
routes, before Crichlow announced it would expand to local lines in April.
MTA and NYPD officers patrol buses to stop fare evasion.
MTA and NYPD officers patrol buses to stop fare evasion.Photo by Dean Moses

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber, during the same press event, said the
pilot currently faces a couple of limitations: the availability of the
technology and whether they have enough EAGLE Team personnel.

“We’re still in the pilot stage because we don’t have an unlimited
number of handheld devices and people,” Lieber said.

The transit boss began speaking about the enforcement model, a reference
to how many cities in Europe enforce against fare evasion on buses, late
last year.

The MTA’s embrace of the new model to combat rampant fare evasion on its
buses was made possible by its nearly complete transition from the
MetroCard to OMNY. The agency ceased selling MetroCards at the end of
last year, and while it still accepts them, along with coin payments on
buses, it plans to completely shift to tap-and-pay soon.

“The ultimate test will be when we turn off MetroCard once and for all
and coin on bus, and then you can really have confidence that everybody
who got on the bus ought to have been paid in a way that can be
validated through the handheld device,” Lieber said.

Last month, Crichlow said the MTA is also looking at testing the fare
enforcement method both while buses are stopped, as EAGLE teams have
traditionally operated, and while they are moving.

The MTA says that fare evasion is a particularly persistent problem on
its buses, as riders wishing not to pay can simply walk past the driver
without tapping or boarding through the back doors while other riders
are getting off.

The agency lost $568 million in unpaid bus fares last year, according to
a September report from the Citizens Budget Commission watchdog group.
Similarly, a December MTA report on fare evasion found the agency lost
$315 million in bus payments in 2022.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story, based on Crichlow’s
remarks at the MTA Board meeting on Wednesday, indicated that the
enforcement effort would concentrate on express buses. However, after
this story went live, the MTA informed us on Thursday that Crichlow
misspoke, and meant to state that the enforcement effort would be
focused on Select Bus Services. This story and the featured image have
been edited to reflect the correct information that the MTA provided.

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free buses Popping Mad <rainbow@colition.gov> - 2026-06-28 21:54 -0400
  Re: fare checking, not free buses John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2026-06-29 01:59 +0000
    Re: fare checking, not free buses hounslow3 <hounslow3@yahoo.co.uk> - 2026-06-29 14:57 +0100
      Re: fare checking, not free buses John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2026-06-29 16:52 +0000
        Re: fare checking, not free buses hounslow3 <hounslow3@yahoo.co.uk> - 2026-06-29 19:56 +0100

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