(Image: King County Metro)
Now Metro is getting serious about its restoration of fare enforcement. Starting May 31st, Metro security will begin issuing written warnings — and citations — as fare enforcement “fully resumes”:
For the past two months, Metro has focused on education and reminders of the requirement to pay proper fare. The initial results are promising. During the fare education phase in April and May, 76% of riders contacted had proof of payment. Fare Enforcement Officers provided information to the remaining riders on the expectation to pay the fare, reduced fare programs and the ways proof of payment can be shown.
CHS reported here in March as King County Metro restarted fare enforcement five years after suspending it during the pandemic. The soft-start is now over.
“We see riders are getting back into the habit of tapping their cards and paying at the farebox, which funds essential bus service in our communities,” Metro’s Chief Safety Officer Rebecca Frankhouser said in the announcement. “As we shift toward issuing warnings and potential citations, we are again reminding riders that there are free and reduced transit fares to ensure everyone can take transit.”
Metro has 30 Fare Enforcement Officers among the system’s 220 Transit Security Officers.
Riders who cannot present a valid proof of payment will first receive a printed warning. Metro says riders can receive two of these printed warnings without consequence. Third and subsequent violations “may result in a fine or an alternative resolution.”
“Alternative resolutions help ensure fairness. For example, if someone cannot afford to pay a fare, they cannot afford to pay a fine,” Metro said in the announcement.
For third and subsequent violations, the rider may choose from the following:
- Pay a fine of $20 within 30 days, or $40 within 90 days.
- Load $20 onto an ORCA card or—if eligible—$10 onto a reduced fare program card.
- Enroll in a reduced fare program if eligible.
- Perform two hours of community service.
- Appeal to the Fare Adjudication Program Manager or request a customized resolution.
- Youth who do not have proof of payment will not face a fine or alternative resolution, and will instead receive information on how to enroll in the Free Youth Transit Pass.
Metro fares accounted for an estimated $73 million in revenue in 2024. Metro’s operating and capital budget for 2025 came in at just over $2 billion.
Sound Transit has also overhauled its fare enforcement approach establishing “Fare Ambassadors” and introducing efforts like last summer’s start of platform fare checks hoped to make sure fares are paid — and educate riders.
You can learn more about the restart of Metro fare enforcement here.
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Relaunch of a “papers, please” interactions. Creepy and randomly enforced. Why not just have regular tickets like the rest of the civilized world?
Your idea is to get rid of orca cards and stop enforcing fares? What problem is this solving exactly?
Spending money to recoup money that will never be recouped in an amount greater than it costs to operate a recouping apparatus?
how does getting rid of orca cards accomplish this?
Incidentally related to one another. Ticket at point of entry vs. being check for ticket after boarding past the point of entry. The card or actual ticket isn’t really material to enforcing after the point of entry.
FWIW, I didn’t pick up ‘ban orca cards’ from that post, I picked up ‘why can’t we have point of entry checks like most other places do’
Transit should be free
So should bread, milk, eggs, gas, etc.!
So should my first billion. Because I said so.
What? Much of Europe has fare enforcement and tap to pay (and yes, sometimes fare gates as well).
You don’t travel much do you…. Pretty much every urban transit system has transit cards, most of them for longer than Seattle… Suica cards in Japan not only work on Japan Rail, but also in vending machines and at some stores…
Seattle announces many things, but follows through on few of them. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if fare evaders face any accountability whatsoever.
It is really inequitable to do this. Transit needs to be free. Property and wealth taxes to pay for it. Voila. Not that hard.
LOL shoo, fly…
I support fare enforcement in general, but what if you paid cash and didn’t need/take a transfer? As the above comment says, they need to issue tickets if they really want to enforce it.
But having seen the “enforcement” on light rail, I know it won’t really be dealt with seriously. Nothing is more ridiculous than issuing a violation ticket to someone who provided no identification or name! And then, the rider wasn’t even kicked off at the next station. Enforcement is all talk.
A transfer is a ticket. I don’t see any reason people should carry one if they have an ORCA card.
This has also been my experience. Hence my doubt that this changes anything at all.
They’ll bring in cops to enforce but they won’t make it easier to pay by letting you tap with a damn iphone in 2025. It does not take 6 years to implement.
It doesn’t matter. They do fare enforcement on the train and every single day there’s someone who hasn’t paid and they give them a warning and the person is supposed to get off and get a ticket but they never do and the enforcement people can’t make them. Enforcement isn’t the right word for what they do. It’s a waste of time and money. Put up gates or turnstiles at the train stations or its pointless.
Maybe it will shame some people into paying for their ride. I’ve noticed fewer riders have been skipping the fare since Metro first announced this. That’s just an observation, but nobody wants to be hassled.
It’s absolutely ridiculous that of all the ways they coulda gone about it, they chose the most ridiculous option of actual fare checkers going up and down a train to check like there’s some financial illustration that said it might be cheaper?
If you’re going to try and collect fares 1:1 of riders, do it at the point of entry, not on the goddamn train with sub rent-a-cops running financial audits.
I really want to root for this, and I’m 100% a fan of light rail transit expanding in Seattle. What we’ve accomplished over the last decade (opening Capitol Hill, UW, Lynwood, beyond, etc,) is awesome. With that said, and continuing to be excited about our expansion efforts, this is such an obvious waste of money. It’s comical how bad this is, and riders will not change their behaviors.
Funny how people rail about drugs and fares not being enforced.
Today? Security is tight and fares are enforced.
Yet? We have people crying the same exact tune. They can’t even accept change they are so red pilled.