MTA: LIRR 'IOUs' for unpaid fares drop in past month

The number of invoices issued by LIRR conductors to passengers who said they could not pay their fares has dropped by nearly a third since the railroad last month began requiring ID to receive the IOUs, officials said Monday.

The new figures came as Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials updated board members on efforts to address fare evasion on the Long Island Rail Road, where $24 million is lost each year in unpaid fares.

Following the recommendations issued last year by a panel of experts, the MTA undertook a review of a policy that allows conductors on the LIRR and sister railroad Metro-North to issue invoices to passengers who say they cannot pay their fares. The panel cited the policy as a key vulnerability for both the railroads.

Beginning June 17, the railroads adopted a new policy of requiring passengers to provide identification in order to be issued an invoice, or get ejected by police. Since then, the number of invoices issued on the LIRR has dropped by about 30% compared to the same period last year, LIRR vice president Beth Sullivan said. She did not disclose the number of invoices issued.

Sullivan, speaking at a Manhattan meeting of the MTA’s railroad committee Monday, explained that "to keep our customers on time, the railroads have historically offered a pay-later option for those who may have forgotten their ticket or wallet at home."

Newsday has reported that LIRR conductors issued about 160,000 invoices last year, up 60% from the previous year. Some riders have been issued IOUs more than 100 times within just six months and owe thousands of dollars for those trips.

MTA officials said other measures recently taken to address fare evasion on the LIRR also appear to be making a difference. A pop-up message on the LIRR’s TrainTime app warning about the consequences of fare beating was acknowledged by nearly 600,000 users. The LIRR also launched a pilot program late last year in which conductors have checked 275,000 tickets at Penn Station before riders board trains.

In another policy change instituted last year, MTA Police are now regularly taking fare disputes off trains, and resolving them on station platforms. MTA Police Chief John Mueller called it "the best, easiest, most equitable way" to address a situation that previously could result in major delays as police officers sought to resolve the disputes on board a stopped train.

"They may arrest, they may issue a summons, they may give the person a ride home, but at the end of the day, the train moves on," Mueller said. "The paying customers get to where they need to go on time."

In the first six months of 2024, MTA Police issued around 1,300 summonses for fare evasion across the two commuter railroads — about four times as many as all of 2023. The 400 arrests in the first half of this year were also more than double last year’s total.

Other changes are coming, MTA officials said, including new data strategies to track down repeat fare beaters, and a rebranding of the invoices to call them a "commitment to pay" and include "some stronger language," Metro-North vice president Nate Gilbertson said.

Gerard Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuter Council and a nonvoting MTA Board member, applauded the MTA for "cracking down" on fare beaters, but encouraged the authority to use even tougher language when addressing the problem.

“‘Fare evasion’ is too soft," Bringmann said. "Someone who knowingly, willingly does not want to pay their fare — that’s theft of service."

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.