As per State Senator Charles J Fuschillo, Jr legislation (S5870) ‘a report issued by the MTA’s subway division noted that 18.5 million people entered the New York City subway system without paying in 2009, an average of over 50,000 a day. These fare evasions cost the MTA over $31 million in revenue’.
It is strange that the MTA did not release the figures on fare evasion on the New York City bus system - what a poor management. It is obvious that fare evasion is more prevalent on the buses side than on the subway side however there are no figures. One wonders why.
We now learn that many state railway companies world wide are tackling fare evasion seriously. Indonesians means of tackling fare evasion is very interesting they are installing barricades called Goal Bola-bolas (‘Goal Balls’) along its lines to dissuade riders from train surfing—riding on the roof of the car rather than in it. The Australians are relying on the new smart card system on Sydney's CityRail transit network to help battle fare evasion. While in China the fare evaders are more sophisticated using fake cards which they make on their own. In England they are relying on utilizing the smart card - smart card industry will soon be able to offer transport operators a range of contact-less technologies derived from the payments and mobile phone industries that will be much cheaper than the transport-specific technologies that have been available to date.
There is no question that fare evasion creates budget constrains however when we see how others are tackling this issue. We note that Joseph Lhota with his white collar buddies are just sitting idle - imagine if those funds were collected then the MTA financial standing would be sound.
We can just imagine the former CEO of MTA Jay H Walder in his second time around where he may claim that he has gained expertise in tackling fare evasion in Hong Kong while Joseph Lhota has not. We wonder what Joseph Lhota would claim - I used to be over zealous in tackling ‘quality of life’ during ‘Guiliani time’ now I am a liberal however I am tough on those blue collar members of TWU Local 100.
So...ganging up on 'fare evaders' should be a mission of TWU members? When the MTA tried to take away Student Metrocards not only was the public outraged but the union went on record as DEFENDING students right to use the system to move around the city for free. If the MTA claims that people who don't have the money to ride the system should walk that 8 or 10 miles home or to work...should we be championing this anti-working class perspective? Maybe those too destitute to afford the fare should just join the military....that seems to be where all the resources are going; not to transit systems.
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