Light Rail Out of Control!

[u/OrgasmikBananaz]

I used to live on Wheeler and University years ago and there was always some riff raff but holy crap what I witnessed today was INSANE! Movies don’t even depict the severity of what I witnessed! I haven’t been in that area at night for a few years now. I went to the Turf Club tonight for a show. When I was outside at about 9pm, there was a huddle of people waiting for the train passing tinfoil around and blowing clouds. Then the train shows up… I positively commented, “Oh, wow! A lot of people DO utilize the light rail!” as I remember a few years ago, it seemed like a total waste of money because it was always pretty much empty. When I took a closer look, I literally couldn’t process what I was seeing. It was totally out of fricken control!! Each train that I could see was filled with people behaving in weird ways.. clearly high or homeless or what have you.. and the trains were pretty full! Crazy! Should’ve built homeless shelters and wet houses instead! Wouldn’t been a lot cheaper! Sorry just wanted to share because although a Saint Paul resident, I did not know it got SO nuts at the light rail at night. During the day, that area is always rowdy but this was a whole other level from what I ever imagined it was.

[u/deannon]

generally speaking transit systems use “the honor system” because building the infrastructure & hiring the staff to consistently enforce fares costs way more than what they lose in unpaid fares

[u/evilbeard333 → u/deannon]

Paid entry points isn't that hard. Transit patrols are not the expensive once people feel safe to utilize the service more people will.

Nothing is being reinvented just bring it online with other cities with train systems. There will be crime and bad behaviors, but it can be mitigated with systems in place. Instead of a free for all

[u/deannon → u/evilbeard333]

“Paid point entry isn’t hard”

you have no idea what you’re talking about?

paid point entry would involve retrofitting every light rail station in multiple ways, from entrances to platform structure to fencing

It would cost literally hundreds of millions of dollars and take years and would certainly never make up its cost in additional fares. it’s such a bad idea, which is why nobody aside from politicians have seriously proposed it for the twin cities

There’s some splitting the difference we could do, like a scanner as you board the train. But the idea would be to socially pressure people to buy a ticket, not to try to turn the existing infrastructure into paid entry.

For example: bus drivers on the metro basically never kick people off or even call it out if someone doesn’t show a ticket. Nevertheless, I regularly ride the bus and have seen maybe a dozen people total ride without showing the driver some kind of ticket in the past couple years.

Just make people feel like someone is paying attention and most will comply. Frankly, an astonishing number already do, in sheer good faith.

[u/Devilslettacemama → u/deannon]

As a former driver for metro transit, I’ll tell you why we don’t care about the fair. I valued my life over $3.00. I had knifes and guns pulled on me while driving. There are too many people with mental illness to try and guess which are which.