Article Highlights

Key Takeaway:

Seattle’s Sound Transit considers implementing gates for its light-rail service to thwart fare evasion; consultant predicts ROI within three years.

Key Data:

• Document: Faregate Assessment Report, WSP, June 2026

• Document: Board presentation, June 2026

Organizations Mentioned:

• Sound Transit
• WSP
• Cambridge Systematics
• INIT
• BART (San Francisco)
• STraffic
• Cubic
• Conduent
• LA Metro (Los Angeles)
• WMATA (Wash., D.C.)
• MTA (New York)
• SEPTA (Philadelphia)
• NJ Transit (New Jersey)
• Paris Métro

Seattle-based Sound Transit is moving closer to giving the greenlight to installing fare gates at some of its busiest light-rail stations, at an estimated cost of up to $88.2 million, to deal with stubbornly low fare compliance.

The project would install 180 fare gates at 14 busy stations out of nearly 40 stations of the agency’s two-line light-rail network, Link. Sound Transit hired consultant WSP to produce a fare-gate assessment report, which paints a rosy picture on likely return on investment for the project. (Download the report below.)

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