DC transit officials say fare evaders have cost system $50M this year, crackdown gets mixed response

The transit system for the nation’s capitol has lost roughly $50 million already this year as a result of passengers not paying fares and an effort to make them pay is getting pushback.The loss – and news that 69.4% of those who ride the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority buses don’t pay the $2.25 fare – was recently announced by WMATA General Manager Randy Clarke.
He announced the numbers Thursday as part of the transit system’s “Fares Pay for Service” campaign.
While Clarke has said the burden of getting bus passengers to pay should not fall on drivers, WMATA, whose buses and trains reach into suburban Maryland and Virginia, is asking that they help in the campaign. 
“What we are going to ask our operators to do is a phrase similar to this: ‘Good morning, the fare is $2.25, good evening, the fare is $2.25.’ That is it,” Clarke said during a recent board meeting. “They are not supposed to go, ‘Hey get off the bus,’ any engagement, all that kind of stuff. It’s a ‘good morning’ and the fare.”
One bus driver expresses concerns about citing the bus fare due to the risk of physical safety.
“Why do I need to quote the fare? Because once I say that it’s 2.25, then I might be called a name, I could be spat on or anything,” Metrobus operator John Anthony Gaines told News4.
Residents on social media express sentiments about the unfairness of fair evasion.
MetroTransit Police are currently enforcing “Fares Pay for Service” by pulling people off buses who don’t pay and giving them $50 tickets. The maximum fine for fare evasion is $50 in DC and $100 in Maryland and Virginia, respectively.
The plan is in contrast with one being proposed in New York City by recently elected democratic-socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who promised in his winning 2025 campaign trail to make buses free and faster for all riders.
He recently told Politico that although it hasn’t happened, it remains part of his budget negotiations with city officials.
Nearly 53% of New Yorkers on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) select bus service buses skip the fare and 48.6% of passengers on regular local buses don’t pay, according to The New York Times.
 

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