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Gates latched at 5 Metro Blue Line stations
Passengers prepare to board a Long Beach-bound Metro Rail Blue Line train at Washington and Grand near downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2000. Starting Wednesday, riders will need a TAP card to pass through turnstiles at five Blue Line stations. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
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Reed Saxon/AP
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Starting Wednesday, riders on the Metro Blue line will need to use a TAP card loaded with fare to pass through the turnstiles at five stations: Slauson, Firestone, Compton, Artesia, and Del Amo. Gates at those stations have been latched.
Gates have already been closed on the Red, Purple, and Gold Line stations. Metro spokesman Paul Gonzales says that so far the switch to TAP turnstiles has been going pretty smoothly.
"Most of our customers are daily riders, so they are already riding with TAP cards, " Gonzales told KPCC. "And so that's not really a problem. The only issue comes up when we have visitors and that was really more of an issue in the summertime."
Metro says the new system allows them to keep better track of the flow of passengers and make service adjustments accordingly. They're studying whether gate latching will cut down on the number of riders who get through without paying the fare. Metro also plans to lock the turnstiles at Green line stations at some point in the future.
When completed, 41 of 80 Metro Rail stations will be latched, Metro said in a release.
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