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Crime & Safety

MTA Plans to Lock Gates on Red, Purple Lines

Metro projects the locked gates will bring in $4 million in new revenue.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors today approved locking the gates at all Red and Purple line subway stops by Dec. 1.

The plan for the lines between Union Station and North Hollywood and Mid- City is intended to better enforce fares and generate more revenue for the system in the long-term.

The subway stations have turnstiles, but they are not locked and riders can board the subway trains without paying for a ticket. Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies occasionally patrol the trains and stations, checking riders' tickets. Fines for riding without paying for a ticket can run up to $250.

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Under the new plan, riders instead will be required to purchase a $1 reusable Transit Access Pass (TAP card) at subway ticket vending machines, and will have to present the card with the added $1.50 fare at a locked turnstile in order to board trains. Cards will be free for seniors and K-12 students.

The ticket machines will stop issuing single-use paper tickets beginning this summer.

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The new system also means that seniors 62 years and older and disabled customers will not be able to purchase reduced fares at subway stations without a special TAP card only available at Metro Customer Centers and some city offices.

The move would violate by-laws of the California Transportation Development Act that protect disabled and senior citizens, thereby risking state transit funding, according to a Metro report on the plan.

The plan also might violate federal civil rights protections by disproportionately affecting low-income and minority riders with the required $1 TAP card purchase.

Metro staff are expected to study the issue and submit a subsequent report to the board.

Critics argue the plan will cost more to monitor and enforce than it will generate in new revenue.

Metro, however, projects the locked gates will bring in $4 million in new revenue, which will be offset by the cost of deploying sheriff's deputies.

The Transit Coalition Executive Director Bart Reed said a locked system will be inadequate until all bus systems that interact with Metro, including Culver City and Santa Monica buses, switch over to using Metro's TAP cards.

Metro will first lock the gates at the Purple Line station at Wilshire Boulevard and Normandie Avenue and evaluate the system for 30 days.

Metro will then proceed with locking one station per week in the following order:

--Wilshire/Western

--Vermont/Beverly

--Hollywood/Vine

--Wilshire/Vermont

--Vermont/Sunset

--Vermont/Santa Monica

--Hollywood/Highland

--Universal City

--North Hollywood

--Westlake/MacArthur Park

--Civic Center

--Pershing Square

--7th/Metro Center

--Union Station

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