WASHINGTON — If you’ve gotten used to seeing people just walk onto a Metrobus and pass by the fare box without a second look, get ready to see that a lot less.
After Thanksgiving, Metro is cracking down on bus fare evasion.
WMATA CEO Randy Clarke announced the organization is going to be focusing on the bus system at Thursday’s board meeting.
Clarke said they’re going to be using a data-driven, targeted approach to fight fare evasion, by starting with lines that have the highest rates of fare evasion.
Uniformed and plainclothed police will be used to fine passengers who don’t pay, helped by special police, transit police supervisors and Metro operations supervisor staff. They’ll also use video surveillance to identify fare evaders, Clarke said.
This isn’t entirely new. According to Clarke, Metro has already implemented a lot of these tactics already over the past few months, but starting in a week, they are ramping efforts up.
“Our campaign is pretty simple,” Clarke said. “Your fares pay for service, because that’s what it does.”
This announcement comes just over a month after WMATA shared figures on just how bad fare evasion on the buses has gotten — 70% DC-area Metrobus riders don’t pay.
"It is harder to enforce fare evasion on all 1,000+ buses on the street at one time versus fixed point entries at 98 rail stations," one transit official told WUSA9 in October.
