Fare evasion, whether jumping over subway station rails or not paying to get onto the bus, has become a common practice for many riders across the Washington metropolitan area, rising 26 percent in 2025.
Fare revenue brought in more than $461 million in fiscal year 2025 to support Metro operations, but the agency estimates it lost more than $50 million that same year due to fare evasion on Metrorail and Metrobus. WMATA said the lost revenue affects service levels, system maintenance and broader operational decision-making.
The Green line had the highest fare evasion rates in 2025, with Gallery Place and Anacostia surpassing the rest of the Metro stations.
Gallery Place recorded over 2,600 fare evasion incidents in 2025, the highest of any Metro Station according to WMATA data. Anacostia followed with nearly 2,000 incidents. Fare evasion is also high along the Red line, particularly at Fort Totten, which reported over 1,100 incidents, and Rhode Island which had over 1,000 incidents.
“Sensors in the fare gates at each station detect customers who pass through the gates without paying,” WMATA media relations representative Christine Detz said. “Gallery Place has a higher rate of these entries.”
In March 2024, Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the Secure DC bill into law which, among other initiatives, allows for Metro Transit Police officers to issue citations, arrests and fines to those caught evading the fare gates in Metro stations.
Previously, fare evaders were just told to leave the facility or pay to get in the station, according to WMATA. Now, if a person does not provide their true name and address, they can be fined up to $100.
Kids ride free
Mayor Bowser launched a kids ride free program in 2013 and when she was elected as mayor in 2015, she expanded the program.
Students ages 5 to 21 enrolled in DC schools can ride Metrobus and Metrorail at no cost within Washington using a physical SmartTrip card or Apple Wallet SmartTrip card.
“Since its inception, Kids Ride Free has provided more than 650,000 unique students free transportation to help them get to school,” Bowser said in a March 30 press release. “The program saves D.C. families an average of $810 per year, per student, eliminating a key cost for parents.”
This card is distributed through any DC school administration office.
“Because of the success of this program, families are saving hundreds of dollars per child every year and we’re keeping DC affordable for more families,” Bowser added. “We mark 450,000 cards and counting, nearly $115 million invested, and 60 million trips taken.”
Fare gates evolution over the years
Metro’s fare gates were installed in the 1990s when the original SmartTrip card was introduced.In the summer of 2021, Metro kicked off a project to replace all fare gate payment cabinets across the Metrorail system with modernized units, according to reports by WMATA.
This was an effort to decrease fare evasion. However, the first prototype was not completed until 2023, when it was placed at Fort Totten Station for training.
“Starting in July 2023, Metro began to retrofit more than 1,200 fare gates at all Metrorail stations to improve the physical security of the system and deter fare evasion,” Detz said. “These five-foot-tall fare gates and fences make it more difficult for someone to enter or exit the system without paying their fare.”
Since then, 96 of Metro’s 98 stations have been outfitted with the new systems, leaving only Pentagon and Potomac Yard stations still awaiting installation.
In 2023, when the new design was introduced, fare evasion enforcement was down 66.9% from what it was in 2025.
What’s happening in 2026
In January 2026 there were 1,613 total fare evasion enforcement events, according to WMATA data. Of those total fare evasion events, 61 people were arrested, 7 reports were made and over 1,500 summons or citations were issued.
According to WMATA data, Gallery Place-Chinatown station led fare evasion that month with 10 out of 60 arrests.
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