No more warnings for BART fare scofflaws

BART riders beware: Beginning today, passengers who hop the fare gates should expect to get slapped with fines of up to $120 for adults and $60 for minors, with criminal penalties for repeat adult offenders.

Since the start of the year, when the new policy went into effect, BART police officers havemostly been handing out warnings to riders without valid tickets. The agency had planned to begin enforcing the new rules at the beginning of February, but delayed enforcement due to faulty ticket-reading machines, said BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost. The machines worked, but took too long to read the tickets, she said.

“They would need to be swiped multiple times,” Trost said. “So, we were working to get their performance to an acceptable level.”

Those machines are now in the hands of police officers and six community service officers who will patrol station platforms and trains, checking everyone’s Clipper or paper tickets on board. No new community service officers have been hired as planned, Trost said, but were instead diverted from other duties, which include issuing parking citations, manning some of the station booths, patrolling parking facilities andconducting surveys. The agency plans to backfill the now-vacant positions, she said.

BART’s governing board voted in October to adopt the new “proof-of-payment” system, which means patrons must produce a valid ticket or Clipper card upon demand, similar to Caltrain and Amtrak. First-time offenders could be a given a warning or a reduced $75 fine for adults, or $55 for minors, the latter of which could be substituted for community service.

Adults caught jumping the fare gates more than twice during a 12-month period could face criminal penalties that come with a $250 fine, which can be substituted for 48 hours of community service.

In addition to the new fines and penalties, BART also planned to invest $3million to bolster security at its stations, including installing video software to better understand theways people are evading the gates, erecting taller fences around the paid areas, and retrofitting elevators so they don’t allow people to move from unpaid areas of the station to the paid areaswithout first crossing a fare gate.