Modern Fare Gates, Turnstile Upgrades & Evasion Prevention

What's new with turnstiles and gates?

The MTA is overhauling its fare-control hardware in hopes of turning turnstiles from soft targets into serious barriers. Across 90 percent of turnstiles, "back-cocking" (the trick where someone partially spins a gate to sneak through) is being neutralized with mechanical tweaks.

But that's just the start. The agency has launched pilot programs to test four new fare gate designs across 20 stations. These gates include taller paddles, stronger sensors, and tighter enclosures to deter jumping or forcing open doors. At the Sutphin Boulevard to Archer Av station, a wide-aisle fare gate replaced the old turnstiles entirely, marking the first full station upgrade in the system.

They're also retrofitting existing gates with "sleeves" and "fins" between turnstiles; in test sites, these additions reduced jump-overs by as much as 60 percent.

All together, the MTA plans to scale these upgrades to 150 stations, selecting vendors like Cubic, Conduent, Scheidt & Bachmann, and STraffic for the hardware.