Fare evasion in the New York City subway system has dropped by 25 percent over the past six months, according to MTA officials. During an MTA board meeting on Wednesday, Chair and CEO Janno Lieber announced that subway fare evasion has decreased from 14 to 10 percent in the last six months. Lieber also reported a 12 percent drop in bus fare evasion, from approximately 50 to 44 percent, marking the first significant progress the transit agency has made in reducing these rates.
“It is the first time we’ve turned around the trajectory of those stats, and I’m thrilled and want everybody to recognize that the MTA is fighting this fight all out,” Lieber said during Monday’s board meeting.
The drop in fare evasion comes as police presence on the subway system has surged in recent months, following multiple deployments of the National Guard and NYPD officers.
Arrests in the subway system have increased by 67 percent in 2024, while summonses have grown by 19 percent, according to NYPD Assistant Transit Chief Jerry O’Sullivan during an MTA board meeting on Monday.
O’Sullivan also stated that there were approximately 24,000 law enforcement “contacts” in 2024, which include arrests, investigations, or stops by officers related to fare evasion.
The MTA also plans to expand its fare enforcement initiative on buses, which began deploying unarmed agents and NYPD officers to give tickets to fare evaders. The city’s bus system has the worst fare evasion problem of any city in the world, costing the transit agency more than $300 million every year. Last summer, almost half of all bus riders weren’t paying the fare.
On Monday, NYC Transit Senior Vice President Frank Annicaro discussed exploring new strategies to reduce fare evasion on buses, including testing camera feeds on 100 buses. The cameras, similar to those used in retail stores, would display a live feed of the bus entry area on monitors, letting riders know that they are being observed.
Earlier this month, city officials announced that 200 more police officers would be deployed in the subway system following a series of high-profile incidents. The officers have conducted “specialty train patrols” and are primarily deployed on platforms at the 50 stations with the highest crime rates.
During her 2025 State of the State address, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed deploying a uniformed police officer on every subway train between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., along with a series of other new safety measures for the subway system. These include increased NYPD patrols, new protective barriers on platforms, modern fare gates, and an expansion of mental health resources.
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