Sound Transit is moving toward a potential fare enforcement program for Seattle's light rail, releasing plans after a new report laid bare just how far fare compliance has fallen. The findings, presented at an executive committee meeting on Thursday, showed that the share of riders actually paying to board the system has not recovered from the drop seen during the pandemic, prompting the agency to consider a more physical approach to collecting fares.
The numbers behind the concern are striking. According to the report, only an estimated 63 percent of riders paid the fare to get on the Link in 2025, well below the 85 percent who paid back in 2019, before the pandemic reshaped ridership and habits across the network. That gap represents a significant amount of uncollected revenue for a system that depends in part on fares to help fund its operations.
Notably, the slide in compliance has persisted even as the agency leaned on a softer, ambassador-based model of enforcement. Dozens of fare ambassadors were staffed across the system in 2025 to remind riders to pay and to check fares, yet the compliance rate stayed stuck well below where it had been. That outcome has fueled the argument that gentle reminders alone have not been enough to reverse the trend.
In response, the report recommends installing fare gates at up to 14 pilot stations as a way to physically encourage payment. Among the locations under consideration is a continuous stretch of stops between the Chinatown International District and Northgate, a busy nine-station corridor that runs through the heart of the city and carries some of the system's heaviest ridership.
The proposal would mark a notable shift for a network that has long relied on an open, barrier-free design where riders tap a card but are not stopped by physical gates. Supporters argue that gates make payment the default and could meaningfully lift compliance, while the broader debate over how strictly to enforce fares on public transit has played out in transit systems across the country in recent years.
The financial stakes are central to the discussion. Agency staff have estimated that building out the gates would cost somewhere in the range of 79 million to 88 million dollars, while raising compliance from the current 63 percent toward 95 percent or higher could bring in roughly 30 million dollars in additional revenue each year. Officials have suggested the investment could pay for itself within a few years of being put in place.
For now, the plan remains a recommendation rather than a final decision, with the Sound Transit board still to weigh how far to go and where exactly to begin. The report sets up a choice between continuing with the current approach or committing to a harder enforcement model, a decision that will shape how riders move through stations and how the agency funds its service in the years ahead.