BART is considering replacing their fare gates to try and keep fare cheats from gaming the system. 

The transit agency estimates that they lose roughly $25 million a year from people jumping the gates in order to avoid paying their fair share. 

Replacing all 600 gates system-wide could cost upwards of $150 million.

It wasn’t hard to see examples of people jumping the fare gates, or squeezing through while standing at San Francisco’s Civic Center station, even as a line of photographers were there to film it. 

The transit agency has rolled out different solutions to try to address this costly problem, including raising the fencing inside some stations, and putting alarms and warning signs on the emergency exits. 

This year, they also rolled out teams of fare inspectors to issue citations. 

And now they’re launching a study to see what their options are to put in new, tougher to beat gates. 

The transit agency hopes that by cracking down on fare cheats, they will also improve the overall safety of the system. 

Take a look at how BART’s fare gates compare to New York City’s heavily-gated subway system turnstiles. 

BART spokesperson Alicia Trost says that study will look at many options. 

“There isn’t any one model that we feel is the perfect fit for us, we aren’t looking at any one agency that we feel like it’s a great model for us, we’re just looking at everything we want to make sure it actually physically fits in our stations, but the statistics are right that we could still fit a lot of people very quickly through it. There is one system right now that we feel that’s party of the study, we really want to know what’s out there, how much it costs, what are the benefits, what does it look like more riders will feel about it?” 

What they do know is that it won’t be cheap. 

“We have to have a really difficult budget discussion. It’s 150 to 200,000,000 estimate and that’s just an estimate. The study’s going to tell us how much it will cost and we don’t have money identified for that. That is a hefty price tag,” she added. 

The study into possibly replacing the fare gates is due to be presented to the BART Board of Directors in the spring. 

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