Last year, the Long Island Rail Road handed out more than 100,000 bills to passengers who complained they couldn’t pay their train tickets, compared to 2019, when the railroad’s ridership increased significantly, according to LIRR statistics. , the amount has increased by nearly 30%.
Despite charging passengers nearly $1.4 million for unpaid tickets last year, the railroad recovered less than $60,000 in delinquent fares, according to railroad statistics.
Jano Lieber, chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the railroad’s antiquated system for sending non-paying LIRR riders home with a credit card is “not working. ” and vowed to make changes such as strengthening police enforcement. The number of fare evasion arrests across the MTA’s two railroads has already tripled compared to last year, MTA officials said.
“MTA police are looking at how to deal with a situation where someone is basically refusing to pay a fare,” Lieber said in an interview in Jamaica last month, adding that police are trying to figure out how to deal with situations where someone is refusing to pay a fare. It added that it was looking for a solution that would “not refuse to pay the fee.” You can delay the train, but you won’t get a free ride. ”
What you need to know
- LIRR has issued over 100,000 coins Last year, only 5% of overdue fares were paid when passengers who claimed they could not pay were issued bills, according to railroad statistics obtained by Newsday. The number of bills issued has increased by nearly 30% since 2019, even though passenger numbers have fallen by 42%.
- Recognizing that it is a system, Because issuing debt notes to fare violators is not working, MTA officials said they are making several policy changes, including increasing the frequency of police intervention in fare disputes.
- While criticizing the invoice systemexperts, commuters and labor leaders said there were several obstacles to improvements, including the possibility of train delays if police intervened.
Lieber on Friday condemned the bill in his strongest terms yet, saying it’s important that there is trust in the system.
“When I see people who aren’t paying, I think, ‘Why should I pay when these other cats aren’t paying?'” he said at a Long Island Association meeting in Melville. “Is he really a good person?” questions begin to arise.”
Example of a bill issued by a LIRR conductor to a non-paying passenger.Credit: Craig Rattle
Bills have increased and returns have decreased since 2019
Under LIRR policy, passengers who claim they cannot pay for their tickets will be issued an “Invoice for Unpaid Fares,” also known as an “ADL 6009” form, with instructions to mail the payment to the railroad.
The number of bills issued by LIRR conductors to passengers increased by 28.6% from 78,075 in 2019 to 100,417 in 2022, according to data obtained by Newsday through the state Public Records Act. This year, the number is on track to increase significantly.
Meanwhile, the number of invoices that were ultimately paid and returned during this period fell from 14% in 2019 to 5% last year.
Last year, the LIRR charged $1,384,851 to passengers who didn’t pay for their tickets, according to LIRR statistics. This is a 31% increase from $1,053,490 in 2019. Passenger numbers fell 42% from a modern-day record of 91.1 million in 2019 to 52.5 million in 2022.
The railroad collected $59,790, or about 6%, of last year’s delinquent fares. And the problem was that he was only going to get worse in the first half of 2023. According to LIRR figures.
In the first five months of this year, LIRR has already issued 55,200 invoices. This is a 70% increase over the first five months of 2022.
The railroad billed a total of $767,954 in the first five months of 2023, but recovered only $24,133, or 3.14%, of that amount.
Paying passengers take note
As LIRR fare evasion increases, so does dissatisfaction among customers paying the most recent fare increase in August. Since East Rockaway commuter Steven Berger returned to being a full-time commuter nearly three months into the COVID-19 pandemic, conductors have told passengers who refused to pay their fares. He said he sees them handing over bills “all the time.”
“And every time I think, ‘They’re not paying me for that.’ ” he said he believed.
Berger added: “It’s a terrible system. But I can’t say it’s a better system.”
The MTA said fare evasion costs the entire New York City transit system, including subways, buses, Metro-North and the LIRR, about $700 million annually.
Lieber said Friday that the system is a “bureaucratic” means of dealing with the problem.
“The Long Island Rail Road has a historical pattern of effectively issuing debt notes. It’s very quirky, isn’t it? Someone says, ‘I haven’t paid the money,’ and you say, ‘Here’s a little piece of paper. Yes,” he says. Send me the money,” Lieber said. “These guys are fare evaders. We need to give them a ticket. And those who do it again need to be arrested and taken off the train. . . . We’re moving in that direction. Masu.”
In May, the MTA released a report prepared by a panel of experts that analyzed the fare evasion problem and recommended strategies to address it. That includes installing physical “fare gates,” such as those installed on commuter rail lines in Boston, New Jersey, and St. Louis, that require passengers to present their tickets before boarding.
The report states that “allowing customers to receive their payment bills by mail is one of the most difficult and difficult avoidance issues facing the company’s two railroads,” and that it has prevented skyrocketing fares. He admits that it may even help.
“The list of customers with a documented history of fare evasion is extensive, especially at LIRR,” the report states. “This suggests that some customers are aware of the on-board invoicing option and are intentionally abusing it to essentially get free rides.”
Following the release of the report, MTA officials announced they were working with railroad unions and police to devise a new strategy for dealing with fare disputes. The agency said it has taken measures such as having officers remove non-paying passengers from trains more often and handle situations on station platforms as needed. , through arrest.
MTA Police Department statistics show that through Oct. 31, the agency had made 72 arrests for fare evasion on its two railroads, LIRR and Metro-North, up from 72 in the first 10 months of 2022, compared to 72 in the same period this year. In the same period, there were 223 cases, an increase of 210%. He also saw his citations for failure to pay fares or produce tickets double during this period, from 253 to 516.
“What we have found is that we are trying to get on the train and treat fare evaders as disputes and resolve the issue on the train. So we are causing inconvenience to thousands of passengers. MTA Police Chief John Mueller said. “When we saw that, we said, ‘This is upside down.’ And what we have to do is we have to get the fare evaders off the train.”
Moller said fare disputes are resolved on a “case-by-case” basis, with penalties ranging from warnings to fines to jail time.
Labor unions: an “unmanageable” system with repeat abusers
Anthony Simon, president of the union representing LIRR conductors, acknowledged that police have become more involved in fare disputes these days, but said whether passengers are removed from the train depends on weather, location and police. He said that it depends on several factors, including the presence or absence of.
LIRR labor leaders say fare disputes can sometimes spark hostility toward crew members, particularly in March when an LIRR passenger who refused to pay his fare allegedly assaulted two conductors in Brooklyn. This is why we have long called for increased police assistance in resolving fare disputes.
Simon said: “Conflicts between train crews and passengers who don’t want to pay have resulted in the harassment and assault we feel to this day at an all-time high.” He called for “realistic and enforceable policies to do so.” Theft of LIRR Services.”
That means moving away from a billing system that “has become unmanageable because there is no accountability for repeat abusers,” Simon said.
A 2019 audit by State Auditor Thomas DiNapoli also criticized the billing system, which requires customers to repay payments for 14 days before incurring penalties. After 60 days, riders with six or more violations can send their cases to a collection agency. The bill warns passengers that failure to pay could result in a “negative credit report.”
However, the audit found that LIRR “did not always track invoices and had limited efforts to locate unpaid riders.”
The audit noted that LIRR maintains a database of “the top 800 individuals who requested seven or more invoices totaling more than $100.” Conductors have a list and must contact police if someone on the list requests another bill, according to the audit.
However, a memo distributed in April by the Conductors Union (International Association of Sheet Metal Aviation, Railroad and Transportation Workers) points out that passengers do not need to show identification to issue an ADL 6009 bill. There is. “It may be issued as long as the passenger indicates a willingness to pay, provides a name and address, and is not on the ADL violator list,” the union wrote.
The union memo also shows that conductors are reluctant to escalate fare disputes on trains, telling union members to “never tell passengers to get off the train” and “‘police'”. Do not threaten or say such words.” ”
MTA considers increasing fines and fines
Gerald Bringman, president of the LIRR Commuter Council, has advocated for police to be more involved in fare disputes, which would delay trains and cause inconvenience to “the vast majority of people who pay the fares.” He also acknowledged that there is a possibility that he will.
Bringman acknowledged that there is “no simple solution,” but praised the MTA for acknowledging that fare evasion on the LIRR “has gotten a little out of control and we need to address it.”
“All businesses write off small losses in the same way that a local retailer writes off a shoplifting amount of ‘X’. This is the public transportation version of shoplifting,” Bringman said. “I can’t do it right now. [write it off] Because there’s a rumor going around that says, “They’ll give you the bill, so you don’t have to pay.” Therefore, we have to deal with it now. ”
Although the invoice system still exists, Mr Moller said increased police involvement meant the reliance on rail had been “dramatically reduced”.
MTA officials are taking other steps to combat fare evasion on the LIRR, including rolling out new ticket collection strategies and increasing messaging to riders about fare payment options, including through the MTA’s TrainTime mobile app. He stated that he is taking measures.
Transportation officials are considering other recommendations from a panel of experts on fare evasion, including creating a system to increase fines for repeat fare evaders and stiffening penalties for frequent offenders. This includes cooperating with legislators and prosecutors to achieve this goal.
Lisa Dagrian, executive director of the MTA’s Standing Citizen Advisory Committee, who served on the fare evasion committee, said some of the recommendations are aimed at addressing fundamental “fairness” issues. This could include discounting fares for passengers up to age 17 and creating government-subsidized discount fare programs in Nassau and Suffolk counties, similar to New York City’s Fair Fare.
“Introducing such a program to the railroads would help increase the number of people who can afford to ride the railroads,” Dagrian said, adding that railroads should move away from dealing with fare evasion through leases. We agreed on one thing.
“It’s a relic. It’s a legacy,” Darian said. “It’s definitely a system that doesn’t work.”