When RTD starts regular weekday service on the southeast light-rail line Nov. 20, riders will have about a one in five chance of being questioned by a fare inspector, the agency says.
An analysis of light-rail “fare enforcement” options released by the Regional Transportation District on Monday shows that it would cost as much as $1.4 million to add fences, gates and turnstiles at each station in an effort to stop “fare evasion.”
RTD’s train operation – which will double in size when the southeast rail begins – is an open system that uses inspectors to verify that passengers have proper tickets or passes.
The agency’s $4.7 billion FasTracks transit expansion also anticipates having open stations and inspector-led enforcement.
RTD has 10 fare inspectors. They checked for fares during 22 percent of the hours that light rail operated last year, said Lloyd Mack, who heads the agency’s train operations.
RTD will add 10 more inspectors for the opening of the southeast train, but the new line will double the number of service hours, so fare enforcement will be as thin as it has been.
For years, some directors on RTD’s board have asked if the transit agency is losing money because of passengers riding free, taking the chance that they won’t be confronted by an inspector.
Over the past two years, RTD periodically mobilized inspectors to do intensive “sweeps” of trains and stations to ask every rail user for proof of a ticket, Mack told directors on Monday.
About 50 sweeps in 2005 and this year found some 4.7 percent of travelers were fare evaders, according to RTD’s data.
The agency’s policy is to issue a warning to a first-time evader, registering the rider’s name in a computer database. Citations, leading to possible fines, are issued to riders who are written up again.
Since 2000, when southwest rail service started, the number of riders getting warnings for first-time fare violations has nearly doubled, from 13,500 a year to 25,059 last year, the data shows.
Yet over the same period, the number of citations for multiple fare evasions dropped significantly, from about 1,600 in 2000 to about 1,100 last year, Mack said.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or at jleib@denverpost.com.
