Commuter rail loses track of IOU fares
The MBTA’s beleaguered commuter rail relies partly on “IOUs” to collect fares from some riders, but its private operator couldn’t say how many its conductors gave out or recouped last year — a failure critics are calling a symptom of an outdated system.
The concept of using socalled Irregular Fare Forms — described as “kind of an IOU” by a top rail official — dates to at least 2007 and is a way to collect fares from commuter rail riders who board a train without a ticket and either refuse or don’t have cash to pay for one once they’re onboard, according to T officials.
The practice involves conductors asking a passenger for their name, address and ID before having them fill out paperwork for an “irregular fare.” The conductor then must pass the form on to the accounting office for Keolis, the commuter rail’s private operator, and Keolis must bill the passenger, according to a policy included in the company’s $2.69 billion contract.
But it’s unclear, in practice, how often it’s completed on trains where only cash is accepted. A Keolis spokesman said yesterday the company did not have data “at this time” of how many conductors gave out or recouped in 2017, but said officials believe the total of those who refuse to pay is “very low” relative to the 120,000 daily trips passengers take.
Greg Sullivan, the former state inspector general and a daily commuter rail rider called it a “fare collection system out of the 1950s.”
“I’ve seen it. The person is sitting there and saying, ‘Oh my God, I have no money.’ And they write up a slip,” he said. “They rely on you to fill out the form, and they’re trying to collect tickets from 700 passengers in a halfhour. There’s almost no way to enforce it.”
The forms’ existence leapt into focus this week as rail officials, appearing at the T’s Fiscal & Management Control Board, outlined their strategies to better capture payments, including a pilot program in which conductors use hand-held devices to swipe debit and credit cards on trains.
But just two conductors throughout the entire system have used the hand-held devices to date. Keolis officials say they have plans to expand it to five more.
“It’s an imperfect system,” David Scorey, Keolis’ general manager, told board members, likening the form to “kind of an IOU.”
“If it’s somebody who’s persistently doing it ... then we may involve the T police,” he said.
Joe Pesaturo, a T spokesman, said the practice predates Keolis. He also cited a decade-old incident highlighting the alternative of removing people from train. He said a 13-year-old boy riding a train out of North Station with his sister couldn’t pay the fare and instead was ejected at Chelsea Station while his sister stayed on the train.
“The teen then risked serious injury or worse by walking along the train tracks to get to Lynn,” Pesaturo said.