In order to deter people trying to skirt paying their fare, Metro is retrofitting gates at 10 stations with saloon-style doors that are, the agency hopes, too tall to hop over or otherwise bypass.
The first station getting the new gates in full will be Fort Totten, which serves the Green and Red lines. Gates at Fort Totten will be fully retrofitted with saloon doors by Saturday, according to Metro.
Testing on which style of fare gate improvement would be installed began at Fort Totten last fall.
An earlier prototype failed to stop people from jumping gates, so the city decided on more rigid swinging doors standing 4 feet.
The retrofitted improvements were deemed necessary because fare evasion costs Metro around $40 million yearly.
After the completion of the Fort Totten retrofits, nine other stations will have the swinging doors installed in a first phase:
• Wheaton, a Red Line station.
• Bethesda, a Red Line station.
• Vienna, an Orange Line station.
• Court House, an Orange and Silver Line station.
• Federal Center SW, an Orange, Silver and Blue Line station.
• Addison Road, a Silver and Blue Line station.
• Pentagon City, a Blue and Yellow Line station.
• Mount Vernon Square, a Yellow and Green Line station.
• Congress Heights, a Green Line station.
A second phase will retrofit the remaining 87 stations. The entire process is projected by Metro to cost $40 million and take around 15 months to complete.
