MTA Defends Fare Evasion Scan Rollout on Local Buses
New York’s transit agency is moving fare evasion enforcement onto local buses, and Janno Lieber is defending the shift. On April 29, 2025, the MTA chair and CEO said civilian fare agents will use handheld devices to scan riders’ phones, credit cards, debit cards or fare cards after the agency’s move to OMNY and the near phaseout of MetroCards.
Lieber said the system has already been tested and that the MTA is comfortable with it. He also acknowledged that riders may push back as the agency expands a model it describes as common in Europe and beyond.
Lieber backs the MTA model
At a news conference after the MTA board meeting, Lieber said, “We’ve been testing it out, as Demetrius has described, and it’s working fine.” He added, “I think that there is a very high rate of customer compliance.”
He went further on the policy choice itself: “We haven’t gotten a lot of pushback. It may happen. But this is the right way to validate fares in the 21st Century in the Western world. So we’re comfortable with it. We’ve been testing out the technology, and the EAGLE teams have been implementing this methodology successfully.” The EAGLE teams are the MTA’s Evasion And Graffiti Lawlessness Eradication teams.
Local buses get civilian agents
Demetrius Crichlow announced on Monday that the agency would equip civilian fare agents on local buses. The MTA had previously piloted the same approach on Select Bus Service routes, and the new rollout extends it to the rest of the local bus network.
Crichlow said, “Employees are being trained how to deal with customers, what to say in instances where they encounter a customer that may not necessarily be readily willing to present their information.” He also said, “We’re also doing the work up front, having the teams go out there and do leaflets, talk to customers in advance of implementing this,”
MTA leaflets and bus signage
The MTA is using leaflets, customer information screens and bus signage to tell riders about the change before implementation. Crichlow said, “We’re having customer information screens changed to be able to tell customers. We’re adding signage to buses so that people know that this change is coming. So it is our goal to be as informative as possible. So this is not a surprise to the public.”
Crichlow said the devices are strictly for verifying payments and do not store riders’ personal information. The MTA is moving ahead now that it has fully switched to OMNY, mostly phased out MetroCards and mostly phased out coin payments; it stopped selling MetroCards at the end of last year.
Revenue losses on buses
The timing also follows a 2025 Citizens Budget Commission report that said the MTA lost $568 million in revenue to fare evasion on its buses in 2024. Lieber said the scanning rollout will allow the MTA to finally introduce all-door boarding on local buses, tying the enforcement change to faster boarding across the system.
For riders, the immediate practical change is simple: local bus boarding is moving toward a system where payment can be checked by civilian agents with handheld scanners, and the MTA is already trying to warn passengers and train employees before the rollout reaches them.
