New subway fares and platform barriers aren't impressing New Yorkers
Transit officials have been grappling for years with two of the subway system's most vexing problems: the dozens of people hit by trains each year and the millions of dollars lost to fare gouging. In the latest efforts to find solutions, they are testing new fare gates to stop turnstile jumpers and metal platform barriers to keep passengers safe.
New Yorkers are not impressed.
At the 191st Street station on the No. 1 line in Manhattan earlier this month, rows of waist-high, canary-yellow perforated metal screens were bolted to the platforms. The simple fences bridged the gaps between the station's pillars, yet left plenty of gaps for riders to reach or fall onto the tracks.
About 15 miles away, at the Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue station in Queens, transit crews have replaced the system's familiar turnstiles with glowing green fare gates with panels that swing open like saloon doors. Some transit passengers who wanted to avoid having to pay their fares had already discovered that they didn't have to jump these fences: the panels opened so slowly that two people could enter at a time.
The pilot projects try to solve persistent problems. As more riders have returned to public transportation over the past three years, even more have been struck and killed by trains. And fare evasion costs millions of dollars annually to a system that until recently was on the brink of a budget crisis.
During the evening rush hour last week, passengers gave bad reviews about the metal barriers in Manhattan, which are being added at three other stations.
“Another waste of money,” said Rebeca Madrigal, 50, a teacher who works near the 191st Street station. “They should use it for more service.”
That same day, police officers at the Queens station pushed a steady stream of people out of the station who had skipped payment by slipping in single file through the new gates. The new gates have also been installed in three other stations.
“I don't like them,” said Vilma Berrezueta, 25, an electrician from Queens, on the way home.
The gates didn't appear to do much to deter fare evasion, she said. “If people don't want to pay,” Ms. Berrezueta said in Spanish, “then it's just as easy to cross as at any other station.”
Transit officials said they were trying to see what works and what doesn't, and hadn't committed to either device. Richard Davey, president of New York City Transit, a division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subway, noted that the technology is being tested on a small scale. Authority officials said the eight fare gates at the Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue station cost a total of about $700,000. They did not say how much the metal fences cost.
The MTA did not identify a timeline or provide many details for the pilot programs, but said officials plan to study the way riders interact with the devices and how well they hold up to wear and tear.
Yonah Freemark, a transportation and land use researcher at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit based in Washington, complimented the MTA for trying new things. But he was skeptical about the metal barriers and said the authority would have to invest in more advanced solutions, such as sliding screens that completely close off the track section from platforms.
“This feels like a very rudimentary approach,” Mr. Freemark said.
Transit leaders have said they will install more robust platform barriers, known as platform screen doors, at a handful of stations, but have also warned that some platforms are too narrow or cannot support the additional weight of these barriers.
Brian Boucher, 53, a freelance writer who lives in Manhattan, said the yellow platform barriers were an eyesore.
“They have wasted absolutely no money on beautifying it,” Mr Boucher said.
The metal barriers were installed in response to the hundreds of people who end up on the tracks every year: some are suicides, some are pushed by other passengers and some slip and fall. The latest data from the MTA reported 1,322 track burglaries in 2023. Of the 241 transit passengers who came into contact with trains last year, 90 were killed — a 43 percent increase compared to the number of people killed in 2020, when it system fewer riders due to the pandemic.
The most recent deadly, high-profile incident occurred last week a man fell between cars after his arm apparently got stuck into a closing subway door at a subway station in Brooklyn.
The new fare gates were installed last year in the hope that they will help tackle fare evasion, which has cost the authority $690 million in 2022. Officials are considering other options to reduce fare evasion, such as subsidizing travel costs for poor passengers.
The MTA is also exploring how to prevent people from sneaking into stations through emergency gates by setting a 15-second delay before they can be opened, an authority spokesperson said. The timed delay will be trialled in a pilot program at three metro stations from next month.
Other cities are also trying new fare gate designs. In Washington, D.C., Officials have installed gates with an L-shaped panel that appear to have reduced the gaps through which people can sneak through. Mr Freemark notes that these produce good results.
Not only do the new fare gates allow two passengers to squeeze in; riders have also found other weak spots. An online video shows that the gates could be opened with a wave of the hand over a poorly placed motion sensor. At a state budget hearing last week, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said the problem had been resolved.
Hanna Bowman, 25, said she cared less about the new pilots than about dilapidated train stations.
“There are certainly other things in the city that need more attention,” said Ms. Bowman, who lives in Manhattan. “It's just not like stations literally look like they're about to collapse.”