(The following article by Joe Malinconico was posted on the Star-Ledger website on February 9.)
NEWARK, N.J. — The public address announcement on the Newark subway warned passengers there would be no free rides.
“You must have a valid ticket to ride this train,” said the recording at each stop. “Have your valid ticket ready for inspection.”
But on a recent 20-minute subway trip from Newark Penn Station to Grove Street station in Bloomfield, no one showed up to check the fares. Nor did anyone ask for tickets on a train heading back to Penn Station.
In fact, on three round trips on the city subway line during a Friday afternoon, there was no one to inspect the tickets.
Welcome to NJ Transit’s proof of payment system. That’s the way fares are paid on the city subway and the Hudson County light rail line. It also will be used on the River line light rail between Camden and Trenton that is supposed to open in March.
Riders are supposed to buy a ticket, stick it in the machine that stamps the time and get aboard. Maybe a transit worker or police officer will ride the train and check the tickets. Maybe not.
“It’s like a game of chicken,” said Doug Bowen, vice president of the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers. “It’s all about human nature. If you think you’re going to get caught, you’re going to buy a ticket. If you think you’re going to get away scot-free, you’re not going to buy a ticket.”
Authorities issued summonses to about 15 people per day for fare evasion on the Newark subways in 2003. That was 5,503 tickets for the entire year, about a 5 percent increase over 2002, according to statistics from the state’s Administrative Office of the Courts.
On the light rail line in Hudson County, police and transit fare inspectors issued an average of 13.9 tickets per day in 2003, or 5,065 over the course of the year, about a 3 percent increase.
The system depends on riders like Brittanae Crawford of Belleville and Kim Malundo of Jersey City, who recently were sitting across the aisle from each other on a subway car. They said they rarely see fare inspections on the trains, but they buy tickets anyway.
“I don’t think it’s worth the risk,” Malundo said.
“That one time you don’t buy a ticket, that’s the one time they’re going to be checking,” Crawford said.
NJ Transit says its inspectors checked an average of 140,000 people’s tickets per month on the Newark subway last year and 60,460 on the Hudson County light rail. Based on those inspections, officials estimate that about 1 percent of the subway riders do not pay their fares, while about 2 percent of the light rail passengers don’t have tickets.
Officials said this amounts to about $200,000 a year in lost revenue.
“Those are very low rates of fare evasion,” NJ Transit spokeswoman Lynn Bowersox said. “It shows that by and large, people are paying their fares.”
The proof of payment program differs from the system used on NJ Transit regular commuter trains, where conductors walk up and down the aisles checking tickets regularly. On the Port Authority’s PATH trains, commuters pass through turnstiles where they pay fares.
But on the light rail lines springing up around the country, the proof of payment method has become the method most often used to collect fares, according to a study by the American Public Transportation Association.
Transit experts say the system suits light rail well because many of the stations are at street level, with open platforms that render turnstiles or fare gates less effective. Also, the frequent stops and short intervals between the stations make traditional on-board ticket collecting more difficult. Finally, the proof of payment system is less expensive because fewer employees are needed and there’s no need to build gates and barriers around turnstiles.
“You have your critics who say this system works elsewhere, but it won’t work in New Jersey,” Bowen said. “Their arguments are shallow. They say we’re too corrupt in New Jersey. I say that’s baloney. The jury is still out on (proof of payment).”
On the Newark subway, the fare is $1.10; on the Hudson County light rail, it’s $1.50. Summonses for not paying run as high as $100. Someone would have to get away with a few months worth of free rides to make the risk worthwhile. But people still do it.
“When I see them coming, I get off the train,” said Delvin Wilson of Newark, looking out for fare inspectors. “Most of the time, they’re not around,” added Wilson, who admitted riding now and then without a ticket.
“Like anything, there are people who are going to try to take advantage of the situation when you have an honor system,” said Mark Smith, public safety director in Bayonne, where there are three light rail stations.
Starting at the end of last November, Smith assigned two of his officers to ride the light rail trains every day, from the early afternoon until the last train at about 2 a.m. — mainly because of residents’ complaints about crime.
“They felt somewhat alone on the system,” Smith said.
The patrols have produced more than 40 arrests on various criminal charges and more than 80 fare evasion tickets.
“The numbers (of fare beaters) were higher when we started out; they seem to be going down,” Smith said.