New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority says its new subway fare gates are deterring fare evasion, with overall evasion down roughly 30 percent. The claim caps a progress report on the agency's multi-pronged crackdown, in which the gate replacement program is the most visible piece — and officials say more installations are on the way.
The MTA's modern fare-gate program carries a price tag of about $1.1 billion. The gates are installed at 20 stations so far, with a target of 40 stations by the end of 2026 and 150 stations by 2029. The new gates use roughly six-foot-tall paddles with sensors, designed to close off the main evasion routes: turnstile jumping, tailgating, and slipping in through emergency exits.
The driving force is the sheer scale of the losses: fare evasion cost about $568 million on buses and $350 million in the subway in 2024, more than $900 million combined. Beyond the new gates, the MTA has retrofitted existing turnstiles with sleeves and fins — cutting jumping by 60 percent at those stations — fixed about 90 percent of turnstiles against "back-cocking," added delayed-egress mechanisms to emergency gates at more than 70 stations, and posted gate guards at over 200 stations, where evasion fell 36 percent.
The gates have not been flawless. Soon after installation, social media filled with videos of riders vaulting the six-foot paddles or crawling underneath. MTA officials did not deny it, calling the rollout a "learning curve": paddle reaction times and sensor sensitivity have already been tweaked to better detect backpacks and luggage without trapping legitimate riders. Chair and CEO Janno Lieber framed the project as a morale campaign as much as a financial one — updating fare gates is "one of the most impactful things we can do to encourage fare payment and rebuild New Yorkers' morale," calling evasion "a fundamental morale issue" as well as a financial one.
The rollout continues alongside a push for contactless payment: about 65 percent of subway and bus riders now tap through with OMNY, and the MetroCard is slated for full retirement by the end of this year — a move expected to save the agency roughly $20 million a year. In 2026, the MTA also plans to pilot proof-of-payment spot checks on buses, modeled on European systems where riders can be randomly asked to show valid fare.