WASHINGTON — After years of increasing fare evasion on Metrobusses, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) CEO announced Wednesday that they would be cracking down.
Their solution: more police, more enforcement.
"We need people to pay their fair share," WMATA CEO and General Manager Randy Clarke said on Wednesday in what he's calling, "Operation Fares Pay for Your Service."
Fare evasion has always happened on Metrobusses, but according to Clarke, the problem has been exacerbated since the COVID-19 pandemic changed enforcement and travel protocols.
"Before the pandemic 25% did not pay ... now it's at 75%," Clarke said. "That's a $50 million loss in revenue."
Surrounded by Metro Transit Police's captain and deputy chief, Clarke said the responsibility would fall on the metro's law enforcement body to enforce the fares, and not bus drivers or metro workers.
Anyone who doesn't pay would be asked by a transit police officer to leave the bus.
"If you don't pay, you don't get on it's that simple," Clarke said.
Undercover Metro transit officers would be part of the plan, although they would not be the ones directly enforcing the fare. Instead, the undercover officer would page uniformed transit cops who would then hop on at the next stop and force the passenger to pay or get off.
Standing at the Fort Totten bus stop, Clarke acknowledged that transit officers would not be equally distributed. Bus stops whose patrons were apparently more likely to pay the fare would see less enforcement under the new operation. GM Clarke gave Georgia Avenue as an example of a busy station that needs more enforcement, and the Pentagon City stop as an example of a place with fare-abiding passengers that needs less enforcement.
"We've done a lot on Georgia Avenue," Clarke said. "...[At] Pentagon; virtually every person pays on the bus, so we're not going to take a lot of law enforcement at the Pentagon."
The WMATA general manager and CEO said he did not want more citations to be part of the solution even though data shows a preponderance of citations since WMATA began phasing in the new enforcement strategy in January. Metro Transit Police have issued 13,500 fare citations and have turned away 300 people without issuing a citation, since the start of the year.
On a cold and windy night at the Tenleytown-AU bus station, bus passengers weighed in on the new Metrobus crackdown.
"I'll be interested to see the enforcement process and see how that works out," one passenger said. "In my own personal experience, I've seen a lot of people that get on the bus that don't pay the fare."
A transplant from the sunnier skies of Hawai'i, Keani, 30, a day school and preschool teacher who lives near the busy Georgia Avenue Petworth was also waiting at the Tenleytown station. Keani said she gave up on taking the bus because it's too expensive and the route takes too long during traffic. Instead, the preschool teacher typically rides a bike the four to five miles to work, but hopped on the bus Tuesday night as she recovers from an injury.
"The reason we all move to a city is to find jobs, so we give up our cars, so why is our public transportation the same cost as a car?" Keani said.
WMATA offers some 50% reduced fare programs for senior citizens and customers with a demonstrated need, typically those who are disabled or who get SNAP benefits. A Reduced Fare Photo ID card is required to get these special rates.
Metro officials are betting this new policy will have the same successes as the post-pandemic enforcement policies introduced on the Metro subway system, specifically the five-foot tall gates that expanded to all 98 DMV stations in September.
The gates which had been introduced at the Fort Totten station in July 2023, have resulted in an 82% drop in fare theft, according to Metro officials.
If Metrobus sees the same successes as Metrorail, CEO Clarke said the money would go toward adding more busses and routes.
"What we're really saying is, we need to run more bus service in this region, and we need people who take the busses to contribute," Clarke said.