BOSTON (WHDH) - The MBTA spent millions of dollars to get more riders to pay their fares.
But a year later, 7 Investigates found the results may leave taxpayers feeling shortchanged.
You pay, you ride; pretty simple system. But our cameras caught many riders skipping that first part.
Last September, MBTA officials said they’d had enough of uncollected fares and deployed a new team to make sure people riding the T pay the T first.
“They may issue warnings, or they may issue citations to riders who aren’t paying their fare,” said MBTA General Manager and CEO Phillip Eng in a video the agency released last summer.
Eng said these new fare engagement representatives would be working to keep people from getting a free ride. He said first-time offenders would get a written warning. If those riders were caught doing it again, the fare engagement representatives would give them a citation that would carry with it a $50 fine that could increase for serial offenders.
Riders we talked to said they haven’t seen enforcement like that.
So, 7-Investigates checked the numbers.
We found the 16 full-time employees on the fare engagement team issued 152 written warnings in the last year.
As for the fines that are supposed to motivate riders to pay their share, we found that no T rider has ever been fined by this team.
The MBTA said taxpayers currently fund $2 million in salaries for 16 fare engagement workers. With materials and other expenses, the fare engagement operational budget costs taxpayers around $2.2 million.
7 Investigates spoke with MBTA riders who questioned the effectiveness of these fare engagement workers. The state’s top watchdog agrees.
“That’s a hefty price to pay,” said Massachusetts Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro. “I haven’t yet seen the impact or the value that they add to the system.”
Shapiro has warned MBTA leaders about this before. In letters to Eng, he criticized the T’s “poor fare collection efforts” and pressed him to commit to “holding riders accountable”
“I think they have not yet shown that, and those are conversations I’ve had with the general manager,” Shapiro said when asked whether the MBTA is meeting its duty to the public by collecting fares.
“I don’t think this has been an effective strategy,” Shapiro said.
The MBTA touted a 35% increase in fare collection at stations where this team works, but that only covered the program’s first few weeks.
Fare revenue for the MBTA was at least $30 million higher than expected last year, based on data released by the agency earlier this summer. However, ridership has also increased, and the agency hasn’t shown how much, if any, of that extra revenue came from this program.
MBTA officials declined to answer our questions on camera. Instead, a spokesperson wrote in a statement, “We’re pleased to report the public has warmly received the fare engagement representative team. We thank all riders for paying their fares.”
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