Why does BART need fare control barriers at all? Caltrain, VTA, and surface-level Muni Metro are 100% barrier-free

But the idea of BART fare gates was that it was the future of fare collection: automated machines. 80% of their farebox recovery is fares. To go back to old fashioned "can I see your tickets" stuff I dont think is preferred by Caltrain and Muni theyre just really old systems

I’m with you on farebox recovery – Caltrain’s is on the same order of magnitude with no barriers and less service. The idea of BART being the future also included carpet floors 😛

Also personally I prefer to just put my ticket in and not talk to any people, having to rush to get my Proof of Payment. Thats one of the nice things about BART and other modern metros. Caltrain usually has conductors walk down the aisle and check for tickets, right?

I'm trying to envision a BART official walking down a 10-car SFO train from Antioch thats crowded at peak hours checking for tickets. I mean that and now we've doubled personnel which is extra labor costs for something previously automated

lots of metros manage to use PoP that have crowded trains (and commuter rail can get super crowded too, I've been on NJ Transit and LIRR trains as crowded as the yellow line.) But also there are such things as non insane fare gates

Okay but for reference the NJT has a 45% farebox recovery

yes running horrible unuseable bus service will do that! :) But my point is more that crowded trains don't mean you cannot do fare inspection.

I guess not on board, BART could do surprise inspections at high use stations like Muni does nowadays. Its just that a crowd of folks having to queue and wait for BART fare inspectors sounds awful. And yeah BART fare inspectors are dumb

Side note but one interesting hybrid is london commuter rail, where some of the CBD stations have faregates since it's assumed that almost everyone is entering or exiting there, but otherwise it's all PoP (with little to no actual inspection in my limited experience)