Governor Kathy Hochul recently ordered 1,000 National Guard troops stationed at certain subway stations in a effort to deter crime, but nothing was mentioned about turnstile jumping. At $2.90 for one missed subway fare, the price starts to add up when multiplied by the thousands of riders looking for a freebie each day. WOR street reporter Natalie Migliore caught up with subway riders at the N/Q/R/W platform at Times Square for 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to ask how pressing farebeating is among their pet peeves underground.
One rider told Migliore she doesn’t see it happen much, but it’s in the back of her mind. “Maybe I’m lucky; I don’t see a lot of fare beaters. Usually if I do, they’re usually very young teens doing it, so maybe I should be a little bit concerned about them beating the fare and whether or not they’re coming to do harm to people on the subway platform.”
Another rider suggested that a different problem on the rails is just as pressing at hopping the turnstiles: “You have more homeless riding on the train, more than commuters. The city needs help. The mayor should be riding in the subway so he could see what’s going on. I don’t think he ever rides in the subway. The people who report back to him and let him know what’s going on, they’re not telling him the truth.”
Still another straphanger took an almost dismissive attitude towards fare jumping. ‘It’s a very minor crime in my opinion. It’s three dollars and for whatever reason, they just don’t want to pay. But I feel that’s very different from violent crime, which is what is a concern to other people. Like, them skipping the fare is not posing a danger to me, in itself. It’s possible that those are also the people doing violent crime because they just don’t care about the rules, but that in and of itself is not posing a danger to me.”
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