Green Line Extension Lechmere to Medford

The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail based in the Hoboken-Jersey City area of the New York City Metroplex uses a POP system. Enforcement is periodic inspections by unarmed fare inspectors working in groups of two to four people.

I think the assumption is that even a certain amount of fare beating will still cost them less than having to build and maintain a fare collection system.

That's the crux of the problem: I would judge that the penalty for fare evasion needs to be in the area of double the cost of a system-wide weekly pass (and exit the vehicle on the spot unless paying a single-ride cash fare to continue), and a perceived (by the passenger) frequency of inspection of at least twice a week -- no interference from politicians intervening on behalf of a constituent, like fixing a parking ticket.

I got a kick out of the conditions printed on public notices on the Zurich system:
Fine when paid on the spot, X; when paid within 3 days, X+; within 7 days,X++, etc.
If there was a previous offense within the past 365 days, higher.
The final provision used the word umtreiben, for which I don't think English has a one-word equivalent, but it amounts to "you give us a hard time and the fine goes up."

Seems doubtful that it could be tried here, but when PATCO began operation between Philadelphia and Lindenwold (in 1968?) they adopted a hard line on fare evasion, taking offenders to court if necessary, with appropriate notice to the media. (And even with 100% faregates there was evasion!). The politicians kept hands off, and it worked.

Head-end View wrote: ↑Wed Mar 23, 2022 7:29 pm
I think the assumption is that even a certain amount of fare beating will still cost them less than having to build and maintain a fare collection system.

Once when I was visiting Frankfurt the system, in cooperation with the police, conducted a surprise inspection of passengers exiting at a major transfer point to test their estimate of system-wide fare evasion at 2% (with open access across the system). The inspection showed fare evasion at 2% -- a fraction of the cost of having faregates and associated maintenance and repair costs.

What is the estimate of the present fare evasion on the MBTA? What about uncollected fares?

When I used to ride the Mbta, I would never witness a fare evasion. I would assume a very small percentage actually do. Maybe like 1-3% at most.

There were supposed to originally be faregates for the entire GLX but they were cut when the project was in danger of being cancelled outright for being over budget.

Yeah that was a good move because they're very expensive to build and maintain. Faregates shouldn't be on light rail, it's the wrong mode if they are.

The extravagant head houses are what made the stations over budget, not fare gates. A fare gate set up like Riverside has is not very expensive and is not wrong for the mode.

Union Square didn't really have a headhouse when I visited. I feel bad for the poor red shirt who is in the elements all day.

Certainly for the short term, they need to staff the FVM area to help people understand the validation process, but do you think they will permanently staff these stations? None of the other surface level Green Line stations are staffed, why would these be any different?

Anyone know what the overall progress of this project is at?

The Union Square Branch opened in March of 2022. The Medford Branch is scheduled for completion in Summer of 2022.

Have they withdrawn redundant bus service from Union Sq?

The only "redundant" bus service out of Union Square would be the 87 between there and Lechmere, and it looks like they're retaining that for local service. That could change after the new line has been in service for a while, if they find there's not much ridership left on that segment.

Article from The Boston Globe today on the latest projected opening date for the Medford branch, late summer 2022.