Paid Ridership Up 4.6% Following MTA Fare Evasion Crackdown

By Idy Perl

Following recent reports of alarmingly high fare evasion rates, the MTA announced a few weeks ago that they would be deploying NYPD officers and “EAGLE” officers on buses to crack down on fare evaders, as reported here. 

The first two weeks of the crackdown are already yielding positive results according to early reports. Paid ridership is up 4.6% on the routes with additional officers as compared to the ones without. 

Plainclothes EAGLE officers have been monitoring the back doors on buses and escorting fare evaders off the bus at a central location where NYPD officers are waiting. 

“That is targeting the problem with the culture of fare evasion, because when these large forces are there in uniform, generally people don’t try to avoid the fare,” Interim NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow explained.