30 Sep New Gates Reduce Reports of Fare Evasion, BART Says

BART’s new fare gates, like these at the Richmond station, are said to be doing their jobs: making it harder to ride without paying. (Danielle Parenteau-Decker / The CC Pulse)

By Bay City News

New BART fare gates that are harder to push through, jump over or crawl under have reduced reports of fare evasion by more than half, officials said Friday.

The number of riders who said they’d witnessed fare evasion has fallen to 10% in the latest quarterly performance reports from 22% in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, BART said.

The Next Generation Fare Gates are now in place at all 50 BART stations. Installation of 716 gates was completed in August, four months ahead of schedule.

The next step will focus on advanced sensors to make it harder for fare beaters to “piggyback” through the gates by closely following paying riders, BART said.

“This is the latest in a string of victories for riders that are transforming the daily BART experience,” BART General Manager Bob Powers said in a press release. “We have installed state-of-the-art fare gates that are already deterring unwanted behavior.”

The gates used by BART are the only ones of their kind in the world, said Sylvia Lamb, BART assistant general manager for infrastructure delivery and head of the fare gates project.

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