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BART installs fare gates months ahead of schedule
BART announces that it has completed installation of new fare gates at all 50 stations that are designed to deter fare evaders months ahead of schedule. Passengers gave the transit agency high marks for overall improvement.
DUBLING, Calif. - 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 at an event to tout that the gates were up four months ahead of schedule.
Patrice Reynolds said that the gate looked like they might deter fare evaders but then added, "I'm not so sure."
She said she often sees riders jumping the gates and not paying.
But DeShawn Moore thought these new gates might prevent people from cheating because they close really quickly, not giving people a chance to jump over.
The number of riders who said they'd witnessed fare evasion has fallen to 10 percent in the latest quarterly performance reports from 22 percent in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, BART said
"Reports of fare invasion have been dwindling as the Next Generation of fare gates have been installed at more stations," BART Police Chief Kevin Franklin said. "And the new fare gates are proving to be an effective deterrent against many instances of fare evasion."
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. "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.