New Metro campaign using police to get bus riders to pay their fares

Metro wants bus riders to pay their fare and is putting Metro Transit police officers on the buses to make sure they do.

Metro officials estimate that almost 70% of all bus riders don’t pay the fare, one of the highest rates nationwide, according to WJLA-TV.

Metro General Manager Randy Clarke said on X that “we prefer no citations, no confrontations & revenue to deliver service community needs. Uniformed & plain clothes Officers will be enforcing fares incl. using real time video.”

Almost 400 citations have been issued and five people were arrested on outstanding warrants since the campaign started May 24, according to WTOP-FM. People who don’t pay will be kicked off the bus and arrested if they resist.

Metro said it stands to lose $50 million this fiscal year if the bus fares aren’t paid.

Bus drivers will be in charge of telling customers that a ride costs $2.25, though some are questioning whether making drivers “quote” the fare to riders is the right move.

“Why do I need to quote the fare? Because once I say that it’s $2.25, then I might be called a name, I could be spat on or anything. We’ve had an operator that had urine thrown in their face for just saying, ’Good morning,’” Metrobus driver John Gaines told WRC-TV.

Mr. Clarke said in a post that “any assault is too many,” but that assaults against bus drivers have dropped by 50% in two years and that general crime on Metro is at the lowest rate in the transit agency’s history.

The most fare evasion occurs on routes near Anacostia, Fort Totten, Friendship Heights, Minnesota Avenue, New Carrollton, Pentagon City and Silver Spring, officials said, according to WJLA-TV.

Last month, 10.3 million people rode a Metro bus but only 2.8 million of them paid, meaning that about 73% of all riders didn’t pay their fare, according to Metro data.