Should DART use Turnstiles?

[Sky Time]

DART should consider turnstiles at train stations
BY MICHAEL DAVIS OF DALLAS PROGRESS

I rode the train in Washington DC with my lovely Mom. I always like riding the train in cities that I visit, so we took the Metrorail to the airport and grabbed a late lunch.

Riding DC's Metrorail was a breeze. I bought a day pass and off we went. When you ride the Metro, you put your ticket in the slot and it pops out the top of the turnstile (similar to MARTA in Atlanta). They also don't use bars for their turnstiles, but a two-piece contraption that makes in impossible to slide through without paying. If you hop, you're likely to be spotted by DC finest.

This is the cool part; you also run your card through to exit the train. The system knows how far you traveled and reduces your card accordingly (since it is a regional rail system and fares vary). It also is another protection against people hopping the train.

If your card has a set dollar value (vs. paying for one day), it will tell you how much money you have left on your pass.

Everybody that rides DART knows that sometimes they take your ticket on the train, and sometimes they don't. Here's a thought:

If DART is in a revenue shortfall, maybe they should consider banning the honor system and collect everyone's fare upfront. In all major cities in which I've traveled and used rail, no other city works on an honor system. In fact, the only system that I remember that worked on an honor system was in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. On the bus in Rio, you board the bus at the rear door and they actually had a guy in one of the seats with a cash register drawer that made change.

Turnstiles on DART trains would make sure that everybody pays and save DART the trouble of having to walk through the rail cars and take tickets. I realize that some stations would need some reconfiguring (Lancaster-Kiest, White Rock, etc.), but start with Mockingbird and a few others and see if the revenue starts to increase.

[Spjz]

Considering that the fare box accounts for so little of DART's revenue, I don't see any substantial benefit to implementing additional measures to prevent people from 'stealing' a train ride (unless 90% of DART riders are not paying, and I don't think that's the case). That said, turnstiles the elevated, depressed or underground stations wouldn't hurt assuming the cost of improvements is not too high. Downtown stations (everything between Convention Center and Pearl and Victory and Deep Ellum) should be free.

[DTDdreamer]

Absolutely there should be turnstiles. The ones described in DC are like the ones used in San Francisco among other places. I love SF's BART/MUNI system... being from a city that is still MT-challenged, I actually find it FUN getting from point A to point B!!! I've only ridden the Dallas rail a hand full of times but never once have I been asked for a ticket and wonder every time hoe much $$$ the city is losing.

[grantboston]

I'm not entirely sure the marginal increase in revenue would be enough to offset the costs of retrofitting the stations and ticketing machines to make this idea worthwhile.

A workable solution (if one is actually needed, and it hasn't been proven that there's a problem to solve) would be to do something similar to what the Green Line trolleys on the MBTA use. Every rider enters and exits by the front door and taps a reloadable RFID card against a reader. There are no turnstiles, but the system works just fine.

The deployment of an RFID fare card system is somewhat expensive (although probably not as much with DART since they already use computer based ticketing machines), but would be a nice middle ground between the use of turnstiles and the honor system.

[FoUTASportscaster]

About 3% of train riders don't pay. If they were forced to pay with turnstiles, there would be illion upon millions spent installing the machines, reconfiguring the station to accommodate the machines and maintenance. Whereas right now, the money spent on fare enforcement is minimal and does return some money in the form of tickets. Most commuters have a monthly or annual pass and those that don't usually ride the bus first, and have already paid for a ticket.

[shaun3000]

I've never thought about it, before, but you're right. NYC, DC, SF all use some kind of turnstile. The only other city I've been to that uses the honor system is St. Louis and they've only got 1.5 lines. (Last quarter of the west end splits, you can either go north or south)

[FoUTASportscaster]

Most every new (post 1980) rail system uses the honor system. LA, Portland, St Louis, Salt Lake City, Houston, Sacramento, etc.

[Spjz]

Most commuters have a monthly or annual pass and those that don't usually ride the bus first, and have already paid for a ticket.That's an excellent point.

[Sky Time]

My thoughts on it when i read it was that allot of the downtown stations are to crowded for you to fence it in and add turnstiles. If they were to be added it would have to be done when and if DART builds the lines under Downtown Dallas because of traffic problems on the street, then it could be done because new space would have to be built.

[grantboston]

About 3% of train riders don't pay. If they were forced to pay with turnstiles, there would be illion upon millions spent installing the machines, reconfiguring the station to accommodate the machines and maintenance. Whereas right now, the money spent on fare enforcement is minimal and does return some money in the form of tickets. Most commuters have a monthly or annual pass and those that don't usually ride the bus first, and have already paid for a ticket.

That's about what I thought. I seemed to remember the fare capture rate was above 90% with the honor system. Glad to see it's higher than that.

The honor system has two added benefits that I can see:

1) It encourages new riders without being overly intimidating. (Or at least this is the rationale DART has used to support it) This is especially important in a time when we're still working to attract people from cars to the trains. With two new lines debuting in the coming years, this will remain a consideration.

2) The fare checkers double as security guards. It's not like we're really adding a huge burden onto the system by having DART patrol for free riders. Even with turnstiles, these people would remain.

[texcolo2]

I got busted in Plano with riding without a ticket. I cost me $150!!!!!!!!!!!!

[palchik]

MetroRail in DC is an infrastructure-intensive heavy-rail subway system. There are logical portals where turnstiles control access. Light rail operates very differently. There is much less infrastructure and the trains often use city streets. As a result, light rail costs WAY less to build and operate then heavy-rail subway systems. I think I've mentioned this before, but if you consider that a huge proportion of DART rail riders either have long-term passes, or transfer to or from a bus (where they are confronted with a fare-checker 100% of the time), than the number of people left to cheat the system is very low indeed. It mostly comes down to the homeless, and if we had the infrastructure necessary to support turnstiles, thats exactly where they'd be sleeping.

[psukhu]

I have rarely seen turnstiles used in other cities with trains similar to our DART trains. Turnstiles are usually used with traditional urban "metro" trains. (what we call subways in the US)

Even with London's Tube, many outer suburban stations don't have turnstiles. Helsinki doesn't seem to have turnstiles at all on any of their trains. (metro or commuter)

I would classify our DART LRT more as a commuter train rather than a true metro.

[mistyp0523]

I was on the train last night around 8:30. They had broken it down to one car, but it was standing room only. A DART Police officer boarded at City Place Station and checked tickets. Not a single person was without a ticket.

That example conforms nicely with the myriad of times I've witnessed a DART Police or Fare Enforcement officer board during peak hours. In my 1 1/2 years of riding the train on a daily basis, I have seen one person get kicked off for not having their fare.

I'm pretty confident that the honor system is working about as well as it can possibly work.

[mrowl]

Yes, I think they should use turnstiles. But not in the existing at grade stations.

Have the option for them in future stations, and add them to cityplace.

[downtownguy25]

Even with turnstiles you have people that cheat, either by going though with someone else, squeezing though or hopping over them.

[garlander4]

DART could install turnstiles in only stations that are underground like cityplace or elevated like Prak Lane. This would help to reduce the number of free riders and allow police to only check tickets at the at ground stations.

[FoUTASportscaster]

garlander, please read post 5. Turbstilles will do little to stop that.