The MBTA Transit Police encourages and always
welcomes feedback from the MBTA community. Oftentimes we hear concerns
of fare evaders who brazenly walk in behind a paying customer without
paying their fare. This tactic is known as “piggybacking”.
To address these concerns from our MBTA community, Transit Police Chief
Paul MacMillan instituted a concentrated crackdown on fare evasion
naming the initiative “Operation Fare Game”. This operation commenced
the week of July 9th.
The fines for fare evasion have been increased
from 15 dollars to 50 dollars for a first offence, 100 dollars for a
second offence and 300 dollars for a third and subsequent offence.
Additionally one must respond within 30 days, failure
to request an appeal or pay the fine within that time period will
result in the non-renewal of their Massachusetts Driver’s License.
During “Operation Fare Game” Transit Police
officers have issued 636 fare evasion citations, TPD Chief MacMillan
stated “ Through our selective fare enforcement efforts, we are trying
to gain compliance in paying one’s fare to utilize
the MBTA. We also feel this is also an attempt at fairness. (No pun
intended). Our honest fare paying customers should expect that we will
enforce the law, in fact, many have applauded our efforts.”. Chief
MacMillan further added “ we are grateful the Massachusetts
legislature included the new fine structure into the Transportation
bill allowing us a more meaningful tool to address the issue of fare
evasion”.
The TPD will continue to enforce fare evasion
violations throughout the system in the coming months. As always, while
riding the MBTA if you See Something Say Something. Call 617-222-1212
for emergencies or use our See Say apps for IPhone
and Android users.
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