The MTA is Finally Checking Fares Without Stopping Buses - Streetsblog New York City

EAGLE teams conduct fare inspections on buses and issue summonses to riders who have not paid. The MTA is piloting fare checks while buses are in motion, departing from a prior practice that required riders to wait while inspectors checked fares one by one. The pilot also includes electronically issuing summonses and evaluating what it takes to remove riders from buses. The MTA seeks data on whether moving fare checks can be done successfully. OMNY has had problems with delayed charges, and frustrations persist with the technology used during inspections. A professor reported being removed from a bus even after paying, saying the system did not update to reflect an immediate phone or card payment.

"EAGLE teams consist of unarmed officers who stop buses, check fares on buses and give summonses to riders who haven't paid. For years, the teams have stopped buses in their tracks to check fares and pull off scofflaws. But MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber finally teased the possibility of "European-style" bus fare validation last year - nearly a decade after MTA leaders announced plans to bring a digital "modern fare payment system" to the Big Apple."

""EAGLE teams ... are also piloting giving summonses electronically, and part of the pilot will be doing it both while the bus is in motion, as well as what it takes to take people off [the bus]," MTA New York City Transit President Demtrius Crichlow said on Wednesday. "Our goal at the end is to be able to say, here's the data tied to both sides, can we do it successfully with a bus in motion?""

"OMNY has been notorious for charges showing up hours or even days after people tapped to pay with their card or phone. The MTA claimed to have taken care of that issue, but frustrations persist with the fare-checking tech employed by EAGLE teams. Lindsay Parme, a professor at Brooklyn College, told Streetsblog that EAGLE team officers removed her and two others from the B44 earlier this month even though they'd all paid."

"Parme, who has to go to a hearing to prove she paid, said the officer told her the MTA's system doesn't always update to include an immediate payment from a phone or card. "[The officer] was acting like it's a minor inconvenience, but I just got off w"

Read at Streetsblog New York City