As SEPTA faces a funding crisis and a looming “death spiral,” the transit agency began their efforts to stop fare evaders from costing them even more money.
SEPTA began installing signs at stations warning customers that they could face a $300 fine for jumping turnstiles and failing to pay for their ride. They officially began the enforcement at the Huntingdon Station in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood on Friday, April 25, 2025.
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WATCH HERESEPTA Transit Police Chief Charles Lawson told NBC10 officers have been writing many citations as of late. The transit agency is now working to see how many officers they’d need at each station to enforce the fare evasion fine.
Earlier in April, the transit agency unveiled a budget proposal that will lead to service cuts and fare increases beginning in July due to their financial crisis. The agency says people jumping fares have contributed to their budget woes, leading to losses of $20 to $30 million of revenue per year.
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SIGN UP “So, the message to our customers is, let’s get back to being good customers, citizens, paying for the services that we render to you and let’s get back to being good stewards of SEPTA,” Chief Lawson said.
Last year, SEPTA installed “fare evasion” gates at the 69th Street Transportation Center. The gates have full-length glass doors along with 3D technology that can detect when a fare evader is following behind a paying customer. They plan to add those gates to more stations as part of their fare evasion crackdown.
SEPTA plans to collect information on what works and what doesn’t work in their crackdown at the Huntingdon Station. They’ll then implement the lessons learned at other stations in the future.
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“Not everyone who evades a fare is a criminal,” Chief Lawson said. “But the hardened crime we see, those folks are evading fares. So, we’re bringing down crime with these efforts.”
SEPTA will also roll out a larger police presence at stations starting next week as part of their continued efforts to reduce crime.
“With additional police officers, we can take a data driven approach to fare evasion – evaluating officer interactions, camera footage, and station revenue to determine hot spots for fare evasion, deploy police officers, and remove offenders from the system,” Chief Lawson said.
On Thursday, April 24, SEPTA announced total crime on their system was 28% lower than the three-year average preceding 2024, according to their 1st quarter report. They also said the data showed reductions in shootings and aggravated assaults compared to the same time last year, which ultimately saw the largest one-year drop in serious incidents ever recorded by SEPTA police, according to officials.
SEPTA also announced they hired 100 additional staff members in the past year, bringing their total number of cleaners and maintenance personnel to more than 700 in order to help keep stations and vehicles cleaner.
“These results are proof that what we are doing is working,” SEPTA Interim General Manager Scott A. Sauer said. “Safety is SEPTA’s highest value, and over the past three years, we have more than doubled spending on safety, security, and cleaning priorities – demonstrating our commitment to deliver the safest, cleanest, and most reliable service.”
