Davey stops fare invader

[aline1969]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaki ... al_ma.html

MBTA general manager steps in and stops fare evader at Park Street station
E-mail | Print | Comments (43) Posted by John Ellement December 9, 2010 04:05 PM
Davey was headed to Ashmont on the Red Line for the unveiling of banners created by youth artists from Dorchester when he spotted the scofflaw attempting to climb over the fare gates at the lesser-used Winter Street entrance to Park Street. The general manager shamed the man into dismounting. Security camera footage shows a bearded young man with bulky headphones and a backpack look around the empty lobby, then mount the automated fare gate, which is quite a bit larger than the easy-to-jump turnstiles of old.

What do you think of this article?

[SM89]

I think he should have found the transit police. The kid probably just found another entrance.

[BostonUrbEx]

I think Davey is an amazing guy for the job as GM. And he actually takes the trains regularly. I don't know much (okay, nothing at all) about the past GM's, but this guy is great!

I'd still like to know where massive project cost overruns come from though and how much he's doing to stop that. I'm giving him some time to fix that, though, certainly can't expect him to tackle it in one night....

But to the topic, good for Davey. I wonder if it's related to me seeing a T employee stand guard at the gate yesterday, the day this occurred. He was standing in the unpaid area sort of tucked behind a support just keeping an eye out. It wasn't too obvious that he was a T employee either, as his coat covered up his T vest or shirt or whatever it was. I only noticed because I never see any employees watching those gates....

[danib62]

I once shamed someone who piggybacked on to me at copley into going back. He probably just found someone else to follow though...

[rethcir]

I think Davey is an amazing guy for the job as GM. And he actually takes the trains regularly. I don't know much (okay, nothing at all) about the past GM's, but this guy is great!

I'd still like to know where massive project cost overruns come from though and how much he's doing to stop that. I'm giving him some time to fix that, though, certainly can't expect him to tackle it in one night....

I read something a few months ago that the T actually managed a "small" (couple million) budget surplus for the year, which is awesome news. As for Davey, he seems like the best thing to happen to the T since Dukakis, mainly just by being an active advocate for riders. Dan G seemed to just be in over his head.

[diburning]

Well, I'm glad someone is doing something about it. When I had a person follow me in at Central Square, I walked over to the station attendant and told him about it. He rolled his eyes and said "ok thanks".

[mitch3910]

I usually just stop at the other side of the gate when someone tries to follow me through. I've been yelled at, poked, and shoved out of the way. Meh, I'll shove back. You're not getting in with my fare. Sorry bud.

Good on Davey though. I really like what I've seen from him so far. This only works to further improve his image and reputation. It would be a different story if he said, "I'm the general manager, and you didn't pay." The fact that he kept himself as a normal passenger definitely speaks to his character.

[SM89]

When I got off the Orange Line this morning at State, one of the fare gates at the unmanned Devonshire entrance was out of order...only problem being that the gate just stayed open. 9 hours later on my way home it was still open and out of order. I told the attendant at the other entrance and she went over to stand there. But seriously it went the whole day WIDE OPEN?!?

[MACTRAXX]

SM89: I found that post about the open gate interesting...I could picture the MBTA Police doing a farebeating "sting" type operation by having undercover cops stake out the location to see how many get lured to the open gate then issuing expensive summons tickets...In NYC for example fare evasion in the subways can make you subject to arrest...does the MBTA Police enforce this in this manner?

I also noticed the high gate turnstiles and after reading about riders "piggybacking" others for free access to the system is evasion like this being watched?

In Philadelphia the PATCO High-Speed Line to Lindenwold,NJ uses similar turnstiles installed with the Freedom smart card system but the difference is that you must
enter AND exit with a card or ticket...and I recall that PATCO does legally prosecute fare evaders if they are caught...I remember asking a PATCO Police officer about the evasion policy back in the 80s after I watched young men jumping the older turnstiles on exit and PATCO's policy for a lost ticket or card is to charge the highest system fare to that exit point...but that Officer told me something quite interesting in if someone is spotted by camera survelliace ENTERING the system a description of the offender can be broadcast to PATCO Police to watch for the person in question but he also mentioned that there was little they can do if farebeaters are LEAVING the system unless they get actually caught in the act...

I watched that video and that fare evader literally picked the wrong person to climb over that turnstile in front of...in another city a transit GM may have a Police security detail like the NY MTA's do...does the MBTA GM get a security detail if needed? That farebeater might had been arrested or fined perhaps...

Thoughts from MACTRAXX

[AEM7AC920]

When I got off the Orange Line this morning at State, one of the fare gates at the unmanned Devonshire entrance was out of order...only problem being that the gate just stayed open. 9 hours later on my way home it was still open and out of order. I told the attendant at the other entrance and she went over to stand there. But seriously it went the whole day WIDE OPEN?!?

Strange thing I noticed the same thing at oak grove a week or so ago execpt ALL GATES were wide open and no CSA in the station so I would assume some kind of failure...

[diburning]

I usually just stop at the other side of the gate when someone tries to follow me through. I've been yelled at, poked, and shoved out of the way. Meh, I'll shove back. You're not getting in with my fare. Sorry bud.

Will the gate close behind you? Sounds like a good idea. People follow me in at Central Square all the time. I'll just turn around and tell them that I paid for MY ride, not theirs. And if they touch me, I'll just call the police, and they'll probably get hit with charges of assault AND fare evasion.

SM89: I found that post about the open gate interesting...I could picture the MBTA Police doing a farebeating "sting" type operation by having undercover cops stake out the location to see how many get lured to the open gate then issuing expensive summons tickets...In NYC for example fare evasion in the subways can make you subject to arrest...does the MBTA Police enforce this in this manner?

I'm not a legal expert by any means, but isn't that entrapment?

[djlong]

In September my wife and I spent a few days of our honeymoon in Paris and, as we were leaving the Metro, we turned a corner and BANG there were several official-looking people who rattled off French far too quickly for me to understand. Turns out they were checking tickets (and quite politely repeated themselves in English when it was clear we were tourists) looking for piggybackers who had entered the system on someone else's ticket. There were about 5 of them completely blocking a hallway leading to the 'lobby' where the turnstiles were and you couldn't see them until you'd turned a corner. I *do* wonder how long they were there and how many they caught.

[cpf354]

I hope Davey brings some long overdue and badly needed professionalism to the T operations, but I'm not holding my breath. The comparisons between how the T deals with fare evasions and other metro systems are good examples of how much work needs to be done. The system really needs some big, big, cultural changes.

[SM89]

Yea he seems to be doing a good job in terms of interacting with the public. I missed him when he was done the street at Malden Station. I have a well thought out plan for charlie cards for the commuter rail that i want to pitch. its gonna be awesome!

[CRail]

The system really needs some big, big, cultural changes.

I think there has already been. From what I've noticed, whenever there's a passenger/employee issue the passenger is usually the one being a problem. Not to say that T employees all have wonderful people skills but over the last 20 years or so there's been a major improvement. When a T employee does go above and beyond, it's often ignored or unnoticed. That's just dealing with public though.

What I find to be really classy is that Davey offered to pay the man's fare after he'd just caught him trying to steal one. That does go the other way, however, because the GM saw someone breaking the law and didn't report it. Recordings of T General Managers and other officials are constantly played in stations preaching "See something, say something," but when the perfect opportunity to lead by example presented itself, Mr. Davey didn't.

I have a well thought out plan for charlie cards for the commuter rail that i want to pitch. its gonna be awesome!

Don't explain it here since it'd be off topic, but I'm interested!