We’ve all been there. The disorganized mob of coats, boots, purses, and hats that flood the gloomy and humid tunnels of the Times Square subway station as they scramble to connect to one of sixteen lines going to all sorts of destinations. Reaching the platform and realizing that you’re not going to get on the next train because it’s been four score and seven years since the previous one left. Boarding the train only to hear the infamous words “Ladies and Gentlemen!” five minutes later. Swiping that flabby metro card and watching .07% of the average New Yorker’s monthly salary go down the drain multiple times a day, only to see a group of teenagers jumping, ducking, twisting, and turning around the gates to avoid forfeiting a single penny. For a system that just increased its fare by $0.15 a couple months ago (and one which will increase it again by $0.10 in the coming year), it doesn’t seem like the extra money is being put to good use . Where is the better service? Why are the stations and cars so dirty? Why does the W train disappear as soon as a singular drop of rain hits the ground? Where is this fare money actually going?
The MTA is about the farthest thing from a dormant agency. Comparatively speaking, the MTA might be the most active transit agency in America. Last year along was one of the busiest for the MTA: they completed several projects and improvements including the triple track project on the Long Island Rail Road main line, the opening of Grand Central Madison which brought LIRR service to Grand Central Terminal on the East Side, and the introduction of the R211, a brand new subway car that will replace the aging R46s. The MTA has also just released their 20-Year Needs Assessment, a vision for what is to come in the near future, which includes the highly discussed “Interborough Express (IBX), a new transit line between Queens and Brooklyn along an existing freight corridor that would connect up to 17 subway lines and the LIRR”, which would benefit massive amounts of people who live in transit deserts.
Despite the improvements that the MTA claims to be making, many customers aren’t satisfied with the current state of affairs. Delays plague train lines nearly every day, and it appears that reasons for delay are seemingly pulled out of a hat. Within the same week, the N and W lines were delayed due to inclement weather, emergency brake activation, track fires, police investigations, and signal issues. Consequently, unhappy customers have mocked the MTA for creating superfluous celebrity announcements, train wraps, and custom MetroCard designs instead of fixing these fundamental issues that have plagued the Subway ever since its conception. Riders are frustrated with this lack of progress , claiming that a fare increase isn’t warranted because of the lack of improvement.
However, the company can’t even reap the full benefits of their increased prices, as the MTA is also plagued by fare evasion. The agency lost $700 Million to fare evasion as of an early 2023 report. It seems prevalent now more than ever, and the MTA is taking steps to put an end to it. New turnstyles in the shape of a glass door akin to the Paris Metro system (Gothamist) that would replace the emergency exit gates, which are the main source of the fare evasion. Additionally, the agency has implemented some artificial-intelligence based surveillance software to track fare evasion and identify how much money the subway “isn’t collecting”, according to an ABC news article. The software has raised some concerns amongst privacy and civil rights advocates, and the increase in arrests of Black and Latino people compared to other groups leads some to believe there are racist intentions. With all these contradictions and concerns, it remains to be seen whether the MTA will ever come close to solving the issue of fare evasion, and if it will ever improve to the standards people want it to maintain.