20 Subway Stations Will Get New Fare Evasion Gates This Fall, MTA Says

NEW YORK CITY — The MTA has announced it will replace current subway turnstiles with modern fare gate models at 20 subway stations this fall in a continued effort to combat fare evasion in the subway system.

Transit officials disclosed on Monday that it had chosen designs from four different companies to test out at a number of stations citywide.

The four vendors, Conduent, Cubic, Scheidt and Bachmann, and STraffic, will test out their fare gate models at five locations each for a total of 20 stations, including: Atlantic Ave.-Barclays Center, 14 St.-Union Square, 42 St.-Port Authority Bus Terminal, Delancey St.-Essex St., Nostrand Ave., Crown Heights-Utica Ave, Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Ave. and Forest Hills-71 Ave.

The MTA hopes to expand to 40 stations next year. Their overall goal is to install new fare gate models to 150 stations in the next five years.

The new models are meant to be more difficult to jump over and force open with the use of glass sliding doors compared to the current subway's horizontal turnstiles.

"For the last two years, we’ve been attacking fare and toll evasion from all angles – hardening the system against fare beaters, simplifying fare payment, raising awareness about discounted fares and, yes, doing more enforcement. Now those efforts are yielding positive results that will grow even more with the new modern fare gates that are coming," MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said.

The agency plans on spending over $1 billion to overhaul the subway system fare gates.

Fare evasion has cost the MTA around $700 million in recent years, officials said.

Over the last two years, the MTA has implemented a series of strategic measures to reduce fare evasion. Fare revenue is up 67 percent compared to 2021.

"These numbers show that our comprehensive strategy to combat fare and toll evasion is working and system users and taxpayers are benefitting,” Governor Kathy Hochul said. “We will continue to use all the tools at our disposal — including increased enforcement efforts and new infrastructure — to prevent fare evasion, hold perpetrators accountable and keep these numbers trending in the right direction.”