Metra To Crack Down On Missed Fare Collections
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Metra is stepping up efforts to collect fares from everyone who rides the rails.
As WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports, it might seem only natural that conductors collect fares from everyone on Metra trains, but fare collection has been a problem.
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"You can have a train that it so crowded that a conductor cannot just work his or her way through the train," Metra chief executive officer Alex Clifford said last month. "In crowded situations where the conductor can move through the train, the conductors needs to do his or her job and collect those fares."
But while conductors sometimes cannot get to everyone, other times, they are giving passes to fellow Metra employees who are not on duty, the Better Government Association wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Now, though, the Sun-Times reports Metra has increased the number of observers it is putting on trains, to make sure conductors are collecting from everyone.
Metra says the crackdown began last month, after a rider survey indicated that many riders did not want a fare increase until conductors started collecting all the fares they could, the newspaper reported.
