Good morning. It’s Thursday. We’ll look at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s new tricks to thwart something old — fare beating. We’ll also get details on how President Trump’s pardon of the former president of Honduras erased a major achievement by the Trump loyalist who had helped lead the prosecution.
In January 1976, 135 police transit police officers were assigned to a “fare evasion unit.” The chief of the transit police said that things were getting to where “the average guy who paid his fare was going to say, ‘Why the hell should I be a jerk and pay?’” That was the first time that the words “fare evasion” had appeared in The New York Times. Forty-nine years later, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the subways, is still working to beat fare beaters. There are thousands of entry points in subway stations and no shortage of riders who think they can outsmart any deterrent, but the M.T.A. is trying some new tricks — including taller turnstiles, jagged metal partitions and internal changes that affect the way fare gates work. Here are some of the potential obstacles that fare beaters now face:
So far, the M.T.A. has installed the physical upgrades in more than 110 stations. It has also posted about 1,000 unarmed “gate guards.” Their mission is to deter fare beating. Since the initiative began in 2022, stations with gate guards have had a 31 percent reduction in fare evasion, the M.T.A. said. Doing the mathHow much fare beating is there? My colleague Stefanos Chen did some calculations, using figures from the Citizens Budget Commission, and came up with numbers that are daunting in a singularly New York way. Every minute of every day last year, 330 people dodged the turnstiles. Some jumped over them. Some slunk under. Some backcocked. In all, there were 174 million stolen rides, more than a third of the $1 billion lost to fare and toll evasion in 2024. That is almost twice the amount that the agency collected from its congestion pricing toll program in Manhattan from January through September. It is also roughly what the agency expects to spend on fare gates with tall doors and other features over the next five years — in only 150 of the 472 stations in the subway system. Gates that would be harder to sneak around were recommended by an expert panel in 2023 that said “the evidence is alarming: fare and toll evasion have reached crisis levels in New York.” The panel recommended replacing the current 1990s-era turnstiles with “fare gates of the future,” noting that transit systems in Amsterdam, Paris, New Jersey and San Francisco had already installed difficult-to-evade entries. And on the Washington Metro, which began installing gates in 2023, fare evasion has dropped 82 percent. Signs of progress“As much as the public laughs at us for things we are trying, they work,” said Chantel Cabrera, the M.T.A.’s project leader on subway fare evasion initiatives. Subway fare evasion decreased to 10 percent from 14 percent of riders between the first quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. Sylvain Haon, a senior director with the International Association of Public Transport, a consortium of transit groups, said the M.T.A.’s progress was notable. But fare evasion in New York remains high compared with some other major cities, he said, including Paris, where the Metro and regional rail had an evasion rate of between 4 and 5 percent. Brandon Jones, 30, said the new deterrents have made a difference, though not in the way the M.T.A. would like. Jones, who describes himself as an entrepreneur and lives in Harlem, said that he sells discounted swipes on MetroCards. Doing so is illegal. Before the new equipment was installed, he said, he made about $30 a day. Since the fins and sleeves have gone in, he can make nearly twice as much, partly because some fare beaters are giving up. “I’ve seen people get hurt” trying to clear the new obstacles, he said. “It’s a safety hazard.” WEATHER There is a chance of flurries this morning, followed by increasing clouds and a high around 40. The evening is expected to be clear, with a low of 21. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Monday (Immaculate Conception). The latest Metro news
We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. How a Trump pardon erased a loyalist’s triumph
Before he became a lawyer for Donald Trump and then joined the Justice Department, Emil Bove III worked as a hard-charging federal prosecutor who was determined to convict members of a Honduran drug-trafficking conspiracy. For six years, he helped lead the investigation that pegged Honduras as a major conduit for cocaine shipments to the United States. The inquiry revealed the violence that cleared the way for drugs to move through Honduras, where officials mowed down anyone who tried to thwart them. The investigation ultimately led to the conviction of former President Juan Orlando Hernández last year. Last week Trump pardoned Hernández. It was an illustration of how the long-held priorities of even Trump’s most loyal lieutenants are captive to the president’s own imperatives. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said during a news conference this week that the charges against Hernández had been a “clear Biden over-prosecution.” Bove said that he had made no attempt to intercede after Trump announced that he was pardoning Hernández. He also said he had no issue with the president’s action. “I am proud to have previously represented and served President Trump,” he said, “and I completely trust and respect his judgment in exercising the pardon power, which the Constitution vests in him alone by virtue of his mandate from the American people.” Bove alienated many of his fellow alumni of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District New York when he pushed them to abandon a criminal case against Mayor Eric Adams. He sought the dismissal himself after several prosecutors resigned. But my colleague Jonah E. Bromwich writes that his response to the Hernández pardon was extraordinary, given the years that he spent on the investigation and its importance to the current leadership of the Manhattan office. The criminal division leader, Amanda Houle, worked closely with Bove on many cases that resulted from the investigation, and the office’s top deputy, Sean Buckley, supervised Bove’s unit for several years. METROPOLITAN DIARY Snappy Driver
Dear Diary: As an ad man in the 1960s, I used to regularly go to a restaurant called Le Chanteclair on East 49th Street between Fifth and Madison. The place was adorned with car racing trophies and memorabilia, and the man who ran the front of the house was from France and always elegantly dressed. Not long ago, I picked up a book at the library called “Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler’s Best.” Turns out the elegant Frenchman at Le Chanteclair was René Dreyfus, the driver who beat Hitler’s best. — Neil Fox Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Stefanos Chen, Lauren Hard and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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