If you’ve boarded the A Line at Lake Station in Pasadena or Firestone Station in Florence-Graham recently, you might have noticed new faregates as you tapped into the system.
These faregates are part of our larger strategy to enhance public safety by ensuring customers are using Metro for its intended purpose: transportation. Many of you have asked us to improve fare compliance on our system, and we take your concerns very seriously. Last year, we launched TAP-to-Exit, a program designed to control access to our rail system by ensuring that everyone on the platforms pays their fare. To date, TAP-to-Exit has been implemented at North Hollywood Station, Downtown Santa Monica Station, and Union Station, and we’re very encouraged by the results: fewer reported incidents, fewer complaints about cleanliness, and more paid entries. The new faregates are designed to enhance access control as well.
The faregates at Lake and Firestone Stations aren’t new to the transit industry. If you’ve traveled on Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) or the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) recently, you’ve likely seen similar models put into action –– to great success! The WMATA reported an 82% reduction in fare evasions after installing the new gates.
We chose to begin the gate installations at Lake and Firestone Stations because both stations have shown high rates of fare evasion based on recent data. For example, we measured the number of paid entries versus unpaid entries (calculated by counts of forced entries and emergency gate entries) between June and September 2024. The number of unpaid entries at Firestone Station dwarfed the number of paid ones!
Key features of the new faregates:
- They’re taller. Standing over 7 feet tall, it’s impossible for fare evaders to jump over the new gates. (The current faregates, by contrast, hover around 3 feet.)
- They’re more precise. The new faregates are equipped with additional sensors that detect motion more precisely than their predecessors. This has been proven to reduce the potential for non-paying riders “piggybacking” or “tailgating” behind paying riders.
- They’re sturdier: The new gates have special electromechanical locks, so determined fare evaders can’t force open the door by pushing them. The new gates still comply with fire and life safety requirements.
- They’re more user-friendly: Instead of turnstile bars that like to get caught in your bike’s handlebars or the strap of your bag, the new faregates have paddle-style doors, making it easier to bring bicycles, luggage, and other belongings on the system.
- They’re “smarter”: If a fare evader does manage to squeeze through the new gates, the sensors can record the incident, providing valuable data that will help us deploy our staff more effectively.
The new faregates work the same way the gates work now. All you need to do is tap your TAP card and the gates will open as usual. In the future, we plan to implement the TAP-to-Exit program at all stations with the new faregates.
But here’s the important question: Are the new gates making a difference? Station data tells us that we’re already seeing big results.
- From Monday, March 3 through Wednesday, March 5, 2025 we saw an average of 512 paid entries at Lake Station. From Monday, March 31 through April 2, 2025, after the faregates were installed, we saw an average of 1062 paid entries at Lake Station: a 107% increase.
- From Monday, March 3 through Wednesday, March 5, 2025, we saw an average of 297 paid entries at Firestone Station. From Monday, March 31 through April 2, 2025, after the faregates were installed, we saw an average of 1033 paid entries at Firestone Station: a 248% increase.
- From Monday, March 3 through Wednesday, March 5, 2025, we received 16 reported incidents at Lake and Firestone Stations on the Transit Watch App. From Monday, March 31 through April 2, 2025, we received only 4 reported incidents, marking a 75% reduction in reported incidents. Over this time period, we did not deploy any additional security personnel or fare inspectors to the stations, suggesting that the presence of these gates played the primary role in deterring fare evasion.
Over the next few months, we plan to roll out the new faregates to the following stations:
- 7th Street / Metro Center (B/D A, E Lines)
- Westlake MacArthur Park (B/D Lines)
- North Hollywood (B Line)
- Pershing Square (B/D Lines)
- Willowbrook/Rosa Parks (A, C Lines)
- Wilshire/Vermont (B/D Lines)
- Vermont/Santa Monica (B Line)
- Hollywood/Western (D Line)
Beginning October 2025, we will begin installing the new faregates at the following stations:
- Aviation/LAX (C Line)
- Vermont/Athens (C Line)
- Del Amo (A Line)
- Civic Center (B/D Lines)
- Compton (A Line)
- Harbor Freeway (C Line, J Line)
- Mariachi Plaza (E Line)
- Slauson (A Line)
- Expo/La Brea (E Line)
- Avalon (C Line)
- Lynwood (C Line)
What do you think of the new faregates? Let us know in the comments. As always, thanks for riding Metro.
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The new fare gates will not reach their full potential so long as they still have a short emergency exit gate right next to them that anyone can easily reach over to open. Does Metro plan to address this obvious oversight?
Hi there, Thank you for your comment. The taller faregates are one major tool to improve fare compliance — and the early numbers tell us that they’re making a difference — but we’re working on other strategies as well to ensure everyone enters the station appropriately. This includes examining emergency swing gate misuse, which is a challenge for many large transit agencies. We’ll keep you updated on this front. Thank you!
I love the gates, and I’m glad to hear that they’re working!
Question: Will the stations be retrofit with taller/different emergency exit gates that don’t allow people to enter by reaching around and popping it open?
How will riders be discouraged from exiting via the emergency exit, thus opening the gate for people to enter?
How will you harden the emergency exits?
I’m sorry but why has communication been, and excuse the language here, but piss poor at best?
People who have genuinely try to pay the fare end up using the emergency gates because there has not been any communication found in regards of these fare gates coming or how to use them. It really does help educating the public and 2nd you need to not just install taller gates, but alarm the emergency gates once and for all. This is not something Metro should be scared of doing.
I thought taller faregates were a pilot program at three stations. Did metro ever publish the results of the pilot?
I’m happy to see that.They’re putting these fair new fair gates in to stop.People from not paying their fares to ride a train.I see it so much happening, especially at 7 in metro.When there’s no security around the cat cheats people because they don’t know what’s going on.I don’t think that’s fair to everybody else.Has to pay to get on the train Why the other ones get away with it
I think they’re great but like others have mentioned on here, there needs to be something done about the emergency exit. It’s still easy for fare evaders to get in through there. Does metro also plan do anything on the buses anytime soon. I was on the 14 beverly yesterday and only half the people paid to get on. Bus driver let a young guy with a giant dog come on for free and he took up the seating reserved for the elderly and disabled. Is there going to be any fare inspection done on the system at all? Any real enforcement of the code of conduct. I haven’t had anyone check my fare in about 10 years.
I can see how these fare gates will work better than the old gates to prevent people forcing their way in, but many people actually use the emergency exit to enter and exit, even when there is no tap to exit, so hardening the emergency exits such as actually activating the alarms and law enforcement when it is misused may be required.
Also, I’m still unsure how tap to exit will keep fare evaders out. Tap to exit is already in effect at North Hollywood station. Yet when I was there one early morning, while a few people unsuspectingly, painfully walked into the locked turnstile, many others just instinctively walked out the emergency exit. In fact, last week, at Downtown Santa Monica Station, even while Metro staff were standing by the exits, there were two lines out: one where people tapped to exit the turnstile and one where people were bunching through the handicap gate without tapping. At Sierra Madre station, people forced their way in through the handicap gate while a Metro security guard was playing with his phone next to the fare gates
Will these new turnstiles be the standard on the new stations opening on the A-Pomona and D-La Cienega extensions?
I probably know a solution to fully deter scofflaws from opening the emergency gates: electrifying the emergency gates during the duration of rail service, but not available during a power outage, Metro maintenance workers power washing train stations during afterhours, and emergencies, via a fire alarm being activated. This is my idea that Metro should consider going that procedure.
Solve the emergency exit problem and have your security guards enforce code of conduct on busses, trains, and at stations!
This needs to be promoted everywhere. I for once, am tired of the crime and nonsense that is going on in the Metro Rail system. We deserve A-class service, but this also means holding everyone accountable on our system. That means paying fares and ensuring that the system is clean and safe from crime. This article proves a point that we desperately need these gates along with an aggressive police force to make the system safe
Any plans to install the new faregates at the Highland Park station?
When is Metro going to activate the emergency exit alarms so people stop using them instead? If the board actually rode the system, they would see that more than half of riders simply enter and exit the stations using these emergency exits, with absolutely no consequences for their misuse. These taller fare gates are a great step, but this does nothing to address the emergency exit issue. And now more people will simply use the emergency exits when they can’t get past the taller gates.
Any plans to install the new gates in the Hollywood / Vine station?
A major oversight comes from the fact that people from other station areas (ie. USC stops) have nothing at all installed, yet in less affluent areas in the list in the article have installed these prison like barriers for low income riders. What was the selection process and criteria for those selectively choosing areas to install?
I’m not Metro will respond to your comment but here is my response to your question.
Many of the street level stops like those near USC are difficult to gate because there is insufficient space on the platforms. The gates need to be wide enough to allowed for standard width faregate, a wider faregates for disability access and a emergency faregate for evacuation purposes in case of an emergency.
To see examples of platforms wide enough to accommodate all these features I suggest visiting the Lake station or any of the street level K line stations.
I think these gates are a great idea. Finally! Something of this should have been done as the system was built but better late than never. The reduction in incidents should be publicized in the hope that ridership will increase.