(The Center Square) — New York City's public transit system is shutting down its bus ticketing enforcement program after one of its agents reportedly roughed up a school teacher who was accused of not paying a bus fare.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said on Thursday that it was suspending its fare enforcement system — called the Evasion and Graffiti Lawlessness Eradication, or EAGLE program — which pays about 350 unarmed inspectors to issue citations to bus riders who haven't paid the fare. The inspectors, which are hired by the MTA, don't have the authority to detain or arrest fare evaders.
The decision to suspend the program comes after surveillance videos obtained by news outlets appeared to show several inspectors wrestling Kyler Taylor, a 53-year-old school aide, to the ground during an altercation on a bus route in the Bronx. Taylor, who is black, has threatened to sue the MTA for racial discrimination, according to published reports.
"I was not happy that the leadership of the MTA, and even New York City Transit, didn't even hear about that episode until more than a week afterward," Janno Lieber, the authority's chief executive, told reporters on Thursday after announcing that the agency was suspending bus fare enforcement. "I'm not willing to keep our teams active in the field until I know all protocols are followed."
Fare evasion is a huge issue for New York City's public transit system, which lost more than $1 billion in 2025 to riders who don't pay their fares and drivers who avoid paying tolls. according to a report by a state watchdog. MTA said two years ago that 48% of riders don't pay the fare.
The Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog group, said the MTA lost $568 million in unpaid bus fares and $350 million in unpaid subway fares. About $46 million in commuter rail fare revenue was lost to scofflaws, and another $51 million from unpaid bridge and tunnel tolls, according to the group's analysis.
The MTA's $918 million loss to subway and bus fare evasion in 2024 was triple the $305 million lost in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 53% higher than the $600 million lost in 2022, according to the report.
The MTA says it has made progress cracking down on fare evaders, with fare evasion declining "steadily" from the third quarter of 2024 to the second quarter of 2025 while ridership increased. It also pointed to increased arrests and civil citations for fare evaders.
Fares and tolls account for a significant proportion of the MTA's annual budget revenue, or roughly $7 billion a year. The agency says every dollar lost to evasion "impairs the MTA's financial stability, threatens reliable transit for all New Yorkers, and increases the need for alternative revenue sources, including through larger fare and toll hikes."
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