Innovating Fare Collection: How Three Transit Agencies are Rethinking Revenue, Ridership and the Rider Experience

Fare collection is essential to the daily functions of transit agencies. They help keep agencies’ doors open and provide important contributions to their operating budgets. 

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), Washington Metropolitan Transportation Authority (WMATA) and Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) are using different strategies to help improve the fare experience for its riders. 

TTC’s fare freeze and fare evasion strategy 

For the second straight year, the TTC has implemented a fair freeze, meaning the agency will not institute a fair increase on any of its transit services for the agency’s fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget.  

According to TTC Spokesperson Stuart Green, the TTC is dependent on fares more than maybe any other public transit agency in North America, noting that over the last two years, 67 percent of its revenue has come from fares. 

Green notes the agency has implemented 10 cent fare increases in the past, but the agency feels an increase in fare amounts at this time may scare away customers. 

“You don’t want to keep increasing fares yearly, especially in today’s economy,” Green noted. “Toronto is competing right now with Los Angeles for the most traffic congestion in North America, so we want people to take public transit to lessen that traffic congestion, not enhance it.” 

The One Fare Program, launched in February 2024 by the government of Ontario to eliminate double fares for customers transferring between public transit agencies in the greater Toronto area, has also helped encourage fare use by saving riders money. According to data provided by Metrolinx, there have been more than 38 million transfers made using the program, and since the launch, the program has saved transit riders across the region more than C$123 million (US$89 million). 

Despite the nominal fare increases and free transfers, the TTC is no stranger to fare evasion. It is one of the biggest hurdles the agency overcame during the past half decade. Over the course of the last 12 months, the agency has made several efforts to combat fare evasion: 

• March 2024: Launched a new campaign to remind riders about the importance of paying fares. 
• December 2024: Began implementing teams of fare inspectors throughout its system to patrol transit spaces and issue tickets in plain clothes. 
• March 2025: Expanded its crackdown on fare evasion to all modes of transportation. 

In 2023, the agency also eliminated its contactless fare gate that was made for children who are 12 years old or younger because they ride all TTC modes for free. TTC found adult users were taking advantage of the rule and using children fare cards to ride the system without paying. 

“When we did our audit in 2023, we learned that a large number of people were wise to this gate and were just walking through and never paying,” Green said. 

Green notes now there is a TTC employee in stations who will manually open a gate for riders. The strategy has cut down on the number of people using the tap gates for free transit. 

The COVID-19 pandemic also took a toll on TTC as an agency, as ridership levels dropped by over half during the height of the pandemic. According to Green, because of the hardships Canada specifically felt during the pandemic, the agency was more laxed on its rules for transit, which led to more fare evasion. That’s where the plain clothes idea came into play. 

TTC employees have been wearing non-TTC brand jackets. Underneath the jacket is a body-worn camera that can record a conversation with a rider about how they did not pay their fare. The punishment for not paying fares on a TTC system starts with a C$235 (US$170) fine and goes up to C$425 (US$308). 

According to the TTC’s 2023 audit, which saw 25,730 observations made from April 2023 to October 2023, the agency lost approximately C$123.8 million from fare evasion. During that time, 94 percent of children 12 and under did not use a transit card to ride. 

WMATA’s new fare gates and fare pricing strategy 

WMATA has also faced post-pandemic challenges when it comes to fare evasion, and the agency took a step in 2024 to try to combat the issue by installing new faregates at all 98 Metrorail stations. According to WMATA Chief Planning and Performance Officer Tom Webster, the old fare gates were what the agency calls clamshell gates. Those types of gates open and close to the side and were easy for fare evaders to jump and cross over. The new fare gates feature saloon-style doors made out of a durable polycarbonate that make it harder for fare evaders to avoid. 

Webster notes the new fare gates have caused a dramatic decrease in fare evasions of over 80 percent throughout the whole system since 2024, with the majority of the decrease occurring on the rail side. 

“Our buses have no physical barrier to enter or board or leave the bus, and we wouldn't anticipate having a physical barrier like you do in a fixed infrastructure environment,” Webster said. “We did, however, replace all of our legacy farebox technology that had become obsolete with modern farebox targets and collection equipment.” 

According to WMATA Chief Financial Officer Yetunde Olumide, the agency moved to a distance-based fare system beginning in FY23. The fare strategy charges an initial $2.25 for the first three miles of a ride, then an additional $0.45 per mile up to $6.75 until 9:30 p.m. Then, the fares reduce to a flat rate of $2.50 after 9:30 p.m. and on weekends. WMATA introduced the flat evening and weekend fares in FY23 to encourage riders to take transit outside commuting hours. Customers transferring from any bus to Metrorail within two hours receive a discount of the full value of their first or last ride. 

The agency managed to balance its FY25 operating and capital budgets without a fare increase. Webster says the agency will often do fare increases every few years to be in line with the current state of the economy while not discouraging customers from taking transit. 

“We found that certainly there's a cost to the fare increase and updating all of the systems and everything else, but also it takes a little while for customers to respond to changes in fares,” Webster noted. 

WMATA holds public hearings before the board makes any decisions on fare increases and other aspects of the agency’s services. Olumide says the hearings are often well attended. 

“One of the bigger concerns participants have shared in the past few years are centered more around their service than around the fare increases,” Olumide said. “We found that folks were more willing to have a little bit of a fare increase to ensure that they still continue to receive that service, whether it's bus or rail.” 

The agency currently has the SmarTrip system on its bus and rail services, which is a physical card customers load money onto or load passes onto and tap, as well as mobile payment. In May, WMATA launched Tap. Ride. Go., a contactless payment option as part of the SmarTrip payment system on its Metrorail systems. 

“The focus of fare modernization is looking at the customer journey and the opportunities to take transit and what some of those barriers might be,” Webster said. “We want to make it as easy as possible for people to access transit and to pay the easiest way possible. 

He notes the Tap. Ride. Go feature aims to create an easier, more seamless experience for riders to pay for their fares, particularly for tourists visiting the area. Webster says the agency is also hopeful this leads to a boost in ridership in the coming months.  

PRT’s budget gap and new fare machines 

The PRT Board has proposed a $0.25 fare increase in order to close a projected $100 million budget deficit beginning in 2026. The base fare for PRT services is currently $2.75 for a three-hour window with unlimited transfers.   

PRT Chief Financial Officer Donminika Brown notes according to data from the American Public Transit Association, the agency is around the 10th highest in the U.S. in bus fare rates, but the funding gap necessitates a fare increase. 

“We still have to be responsible in the amount we raise,” Brown said. “For us, the natural next step from $2.75 would be $3.” 

The public comment period on the potential service cuts and fare increases began in March and lasts until June 18. Once the comment period concludes, the PRT Board will conduct its Title VI analysis throughout the summer and early fall before making a final decision on whether the service cuts and fare increases become official. 

In July 2024, PRT asked for public feedback on its PRTner Pass, a program that launched earlier this year and is designed to encourage ridership by offering discounted monthly passes to multi-family property owners and managers with more than 10 units, secondary and post-secondary schools and employers. The passes cost $28 a month with the discount.  

Brown says the feedback on the program was overwhelmingly positive. 

“We heard from a lot of folks who regularly take transit or maybe have come from other cities that it's something that they've seen similar programs in other cities, and they're excited to see that it's coming to Pittsburgh,” Brown said.   

In addition to changes in fare prices, PRT is also rolling out updates ticket vending machines (TVMs). In August 2024, the agency partnered with Flowbird North America Inc. to install more than 80 Astreo TVMs at transit stations around the region. The agency expects to begin installing the new machines in the fall of this year. 

Brown notes the new machines will allow Masabi cards to come out of the machine. The new fare machines will also allow a rider to add any amount of money they wish to their Masabi card, where the old machines have a set limit. The Masabi system will also allow PRT to move to account-based ticketing.  

“We have issues in a card-based system in terms of, in some instances for the purchase to actually show up on the card in a reasonable amount of time; whereas with account-based ticketing, it's almost instantaneous in terms of the purchase showing up in the account,” said Director of the Port Authority of Allegheny County, Pa., Peter Schenk. “Right now, there can be, depending on circumstances, anywhere from a 24- to 72-hour delay for a purchase.” 

According to Brown, paying for fares for the bus and rail systems are completely different. The PRT rail system does not have barriers or fare gates like the bus system. There are fare collectors who are located at rail stations, and the agency is looking at ways to improve fare collection for rail customers.