SEPTA is adding more evasion-resistant fare gates at Philly transit stations

SEPTA has ordered 97 high-tech glass fare gates that stand about 8 feet tall and are close to the ground for nine stations on the Market-Frankford and Broad Street Lines as it escalates the fight against rampant fare evasion on the transit system.

Similar gates have helped reduce turnstile jumping at the 69th Street Transportation Center, SEPTA officials concluded from an analysis of sales data. The bustling hub has 12 gates on the Market-Frankford Line side and eight guarding the entrance to the Norristown High Speed Line.

“We think they’ve been an effective deterrent overall,” SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said.

SEPTA’s board Thursday awarded a no-bid, $6.9 million contract to Conduent Transportation Systems Inc. to install the barriers at seven El stations: Somerset, Huntingdon, 11th Street, 13th Street, the Frankford Transportation Center, Allegheny and 52nd Street. They’ll also be installed at the Cecil B. Moore and City Hall stops on the Broad Street Line.

Three-dimensional imaging technology in the gates can detect and count fare evaders who “tailgate,” or slip behind someone who has paid. It also can distinguish wheelchairs, walkers, strollers and luggage and keep the doors from slamming on people using them.

SEPTA estimates riders who don’t pay cost the agency $68 million a year in lost fare revenue.

At 69th Street, SEPTA recorded an average of 3,979 more fare payments by Quick-Trip ticket, Key Travel Wallet taps and other contactless taps in the five weeks after the new gates began operating in April, compared to the month before they went online.

It has proved difficult for people to slither under the glass gates and impossible for them to vault them, Busch said. Each gate stands about 7 feet 8 inches — but the arch above the gates is just over 8 feet. “It’s definitely harder to pull that stuff off,” Busch said.

SEPTA expects the first of the new gates to be installed by late spring 2025, with the rest coming online soon after. It plans to start with City Hall Station.

Fare evasion, a challenge in many cities, has become an issue in Pennsylvania’s ongoing political rumble over proposed new state funding for public transportation systems. Republican legislative leaders challenged SEPTA to show it could raise its own revenue, too.

Other U.S. agencies have also installed higher gates to deter fare jumping, including the Chicago Transit Authority, Bay Area Rapid Transit and the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro).

In addition to adding gates, SEPTA Transit Police have gone back to issuing summary citations to fare scofflaws, a practice that was abandoned five years ago in favor of noncriminal $25 tickets. Nonpaying riders are now being sent to court, where judges can mete out hundreds in fines, community service hours, and potentially stiffer sanctions.

Conduent did not have to bid on the contract because it installed and maintains SEPTA’s Key payment system and it will be faster and easier to integrate the new gates with it.