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Port Authority Leaving Fare Compliance Policy Unchanged

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - If it's not broken, don't try to fix it.

Those were the words from the chief executive officer of the Port Authority at Friday's board meeting.

She was speaking about enforcing the fare compliance for T riders.

In her report to the board, the CEO said the fare compliance policy will remain as-is. The Port Authority officers will focus on safety and transit issues. She also said a cashless system isn't ideal.

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(Photo Credit: KDKA)

CEO Katharine Kelleman's report was the first order of business at the meeting.

Kelleman said the fare compliance rate for T riders - the percentage of riders who use their fare cards on the city's light rail system, is very high at 98 percent.

"So, we have a fare non-compliance rate of 2 percent. We find this to be a very strong rate of fare compliance especially compared to our friends around the country. This tells us that our fare acceptance method for payment is working," Kelleman said.

Going forward, Kelleman said Port Authority officers will continue to concentrate on safety, not fare enforcement.

"Port Authority officers are here to keep our riders, employees and assets safe. They are going to be doing more than that in the future and this relies on them concentrating on their safety and security roles. We will not be using our police officers for primary fare enforcement," Kelleman said.

She also said a cashless system isn't what riders want.

"A fully cashless system where you end up interacting with an armed police officer as your only access to the system is not what we have heard our community wants and it's not what we're about. If folks want to be cashless, they can get a Connect Card, they can buy their ticket off the trains," Kelleman said.

Plans for a marketing campaign to educate riders on using their fare cards will be implemented, in hopes all riders will use their fare cards when riding the T.

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