Seattle, WA

The Status of Fare Evasion in Washington State

Published

2 months ago

May 21, 2026

The Status of Fare Evasion in Washington State

During the pandemic, fares were suspended on a number of transit agencies in Washington State including Metro and Sound Transit for public health reasons. While transit was free for part of 2020, Metro and Sound Transit suspended fare enforcement until Spring 2025 and Fall 2023 respectively.

On Seattle’s buses and trains (and Snohomish’s, Spokane’s, and Vancouver’s BRTs), agencies employ a “Proof of Payment” system. Common in Northern Europe, fares are not enforced by turnstiles or bus drivers but by transit employees who randomly board transit vehicles and check that riders have proof of payment. Turnstiles prevent the possibility of unique fare media (a free bus ticket with a hotel or, as in Seattle, arena ticket) and barrier-less Youth Ride Free. They also save on capital costs associated with fare gates and operational costs by enabling shorter bus dwell times with all door boarding.

One downside of proof of payment systems is that fare enforcement is more complex. In Washington State, most agencies with off-board fare payment also have a fare enforcement program to issue fines or citations to riders who illegally boarded without paying.

Youth Ride Free

In 2022, youth began riding transit for free across Washington State. In that year’s transportation budget, Olympia began funding local transit operations for local agencies (except Sound Transit) and in return demanded agencies adopt “low-barrier, zero-fare policies for youth”. That forbids checking IDs, mandating Youth ORCA cards, or even filling out a form. WSDOT indicates that any rider who “identifies oneself as 18 years of age and under” can’t be denied service due to lack of fare media.

Youth Ride Free has been a huge win for parents and children but for transit agencies it’s added complexity to fare enforcement. Today, a large contingent of riders legally ride for free with no identification or fare media making enforcement and calculating a fare evasion rate difficult.

Outside Seattle, no tracking

Outside of Seattle, Community Transit (in Snohomish County), C-TRAN (in Vancouver), and Spokane Transit operate proof of payment BRT systems. We reached out to those agencies to understand their fare evasion rate and all three said fare evasion was not a metric they tracked. Spokane Transit does not have a fare enforcement program. Both Community Transit and C-TRAN cited Youth Ride Free as a reason why their agency is unable to track a fare evasion rate.

King County Metro

In 2019, King County Metro estimated that between 2.7% and 4.5% of riders weren’t paying on proof of payment routes (i.e RapidRides). Last month, the Urbanist broke that King County Metro issued zero citations for fare evasion in 2025 despite Metro estimating a systemwide 35% “nonpayment rate”.

With Youth Ride Free, “nonpayment” and “evasion” aren’t really synonyms anymore so we reached out to Metro for more clarity. Metro spokesperson Jeff Switzer clarified that “the systemwide non-payment rate of 35 percent does exclude youth ridership, based on our best estimates” (emphasis mine).

Coverage of this story in the Seattle Times also indicated that routes with fare enforcement (i.e. the 7, 36, 40, 106, and RapidRides A-F) now have just a 3% evasion rate, an almost 30 percentage point reduction since enforcement began. Metro clarified that they do not actually track fare evasion by route and the 3% figure cited by the Seattle Times is the percentage of fare checks in which riders had not paid, not the percentage of boardings in which riders had not paid.

Sound Transit

In 2019, fare evasion on Link was 2.4% of riders. After a brief hiatus for the pandemic, in Fall 2023 Sound Transit began enforcing fares again (with Fare Ambassadors instead of security).

In early May, staff gave an update to the Sound Transit Board on the Fare Engagement Program. Notably, only 63% of boardings have valid fare media (i.e. paid), a rate somewhat higher than the 56% in 2022. Youth (and those attesting to be youth) are included in the 37% of riders that do not pay. Before Youth Ride Free, youth represented roughly 6% of ridership.

In 2018, Fare Inspectors checked roughly 2.5M fares or 8.76% of riders. In 2025, Fare Ambassadors checked 986,304 fares, roughly 2.5% of riders and a far cry from Sound Transit’s goal of checking 10% of riders.

Of those checked by Fare Ambassadors in 2025, 15% did not have a valid fare. 7.5% were youth legally riding free. 7.8% were not youth and did not have a valid fare and of that number, 60% refused to show ID and were thus not issued a warning.

It is difficult to reconcile the discrepancy between only 63% of riders having paid but 85% of riders checked by Fare Ambassadors having a valid fare. Perhaps 20% of riders dodge the Fare Ambassadors? Or 20% of riders are on crushed trains Fare Ambassadors cannot check? Regardless, it is obvious that Fare Ambassadors are not checking a representative sample of riders.

In 2024, staff estimated that due to fare evasion, the agency lost $15M annually and is losing $30M annually now that ST2 is completed. Over the course of the 50 year ST3 program, that represents roughly $1.5 billion, or 10% of the cost overrun for the Ballard Link. The agency is now piloting “entrance inspections” (i.e. human fare gates), which do increase compliance but only when the inspections are active.

The Sound Transit board obviously sees fare evasion as a problem as they investigate fare gates. But BART, a fully gated system, had a 5% evasion rate in 2017 and has a 10% evasion rate now, both far higher than Sound Transit’s own fare gate-less 2.4% evasion rate from 2019 when over 2.5x more checks were happening.

Editor’s Note: Uncivil comments, especially those which make unsubstantiated claims about riders who do or do not pay fare, will be moderated in accordance with our Comment Policy.

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Seattle, WA

Ticket Alert: Thundercat, Michelle Branch, and More Seattle Events Going On Sale This Week – The Stranger

Published

16 hours ago

July 16, 2026

Press Room

Ticket Alert: Thundercat, Michelle Branch, and More Seattle Events Going On Sale This Week – The Stranger

Get ready to rumble with tickets to these newly announced shows. Groovy genre-bending bassist Thundercat will come through Seattle to support his recent release, Distracted. Pop-rock singer-songwriter Michelle Branch has announced a new album and cross-country tour for the fall. Plus, Daily Show correspondent and former pro tennis player Michael Kosta brings his Big Dad Energy stand-up special to Seattle next spring. Read on for details!

ON SALE FRIDAY, JULY 17

MUSIC

The Amity Affliction: House of Cards 2026
Showbox SoDo (Fri Nov 27)

Bravo the Bagchaser & Peysoh
The Crocodile (Wed Sept 23)

Candlebox – Can’t Quit You Tour
Paramount Theatre (Fri Sept 25)

See more on EverOut!

EverOut is The Stranger’s new website devoted to things to do in Seattle and across the Pacific Northwest. It has all the same things you’re used to seeing from Stranger EverOut Staff, just in a new spot!…
More by EverOut Staff

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Seattle, WA

Trump immediately fires the new court-appointed top prosecutor in Seattle | CNN Politics

Published

1 day ago

July 16, 2026

Press Room

Trump immediately fires the new court-appointed top prosecutor in Seattle | CNN Politics

SeattleAP —

President Donald Trump fired the new top US prosecutor in Seattle on Wednesday less than an hour after the attorney was unanimously appointed by the federal judges in the district, highlighting tensions between the courts and the president over the powerful positions.

Roger Rogoff, a former judge and veteran state and federal prosecutor, was sworn in as US attorney before 8 a.m. at the courthouse in downtown Seattle. In a phone interview, he said he then went to the US Attorney’s Office and asked to meet with Charles Neil Floyd, whose 120-day interim term in the position ended in February.

As he waited in a lobby, Rogoff said, he received an email from the Trump administration informing him he’d been removed. He is consulting with other lawyers about suing over his firing, he said.

Presidents normally appoint US attorneys, the top federal prosecutor in each judicial district. The positions require Senate confirmation, except in temporary appointments. When temporary appointments expire before a nominee is confirmed, the judges in a judicial district can name a US attorney.

But under Trump, the Justice Department has sought to leave unconfirmed prosecutors in their positions indefinitely, often through novel personnel maneuvers.

“District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them,” Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a social media post Wednesday. He added that the judges who appointed Rogoff “abandoned the time-honored process of consultation with the administration so that the selected U.S. Attorney is qualified to serve in the administration.”

Trump named Floyd, who previously served as an immigration judge, interim US attorney last October but never forwarded his nomination to the Senate. When Floyd’s time as interim US attorney expired, Trump simply shifted his title, a tactic the administration has also tried in other federal judicial districts: It named him first assistant US attorney, while leaving the top post empty.

In May, a US appeals court panel expressed skepticism that the maneuver was legal. The federal judges in the city decided to take applications for the position, and it appointed a bipartisan panel to review the applications.

On Wednesday morning the court — comprising 17 active and senior judges appointed by five presidents — issued its unanimous order naming Rogoff the US attorney for western Washington.

Democratic Washington Sen. Patty Murray, who had opposed Floyd for the US attorney job, blasted Rogoff’s quick firing.

“Throughout his career, he has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to public service, and he was appointed legally by the federal judges in the Western District of Washington,” the senator said in a written statement. “This administration doesn’t want to deal with advice and consent—they just want to install cronies to carry out a corrupt political agenda.”

In December, Alina Habba resigned as the top federal prosecutor for New Jersey after an appeals court said she had been serving in the post unlawfully.

Lindsey Halligan, who pursued indictments against a pair of Trump’s adversaries, left her position as an acting US attorney in Virginia after a judge concluded her appointment was unlawful and that indictments she brought against James and former FBI Director James Comey must be dismissed.

The judges there named James Hundley, who had handled criminal and civil cases for more than 30 years, but the administration fired him. It also fired a court-appointed US attorney in northern New York.

Rogoff, who spent 20 years as a state prosecutor and six as a federal prosecutor before becoming a state judge, said he knew the administration might fire him immediately. But he said he had no qualms about the potential conflict he was walking into. Being US attorney is “the best job there is” for a prosecutor, he said.

“I’m really proud of my career,” Rogoff said. “The fact that the judges of this district — most of whom I’ve spent my career appearing in front of, or trying cases against, or working with — believed that I was the right person to do this work is just really humbling and amazing.”

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Seattle, WA

Outreach groups respond to the reported relocation cycle of Ballard’s homeless population

Published

2 days ago

July 15, 2026

Press Room

Outreach groups respond to the reported relocation cycle of Ballard’s homeless population

SEATTLE — As people voice concerns about an encampment in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, outreach groups are detailing their efforts and fighting back against encampment removals.

The outreach group We Heart Seattle said it checks on the people in an encampment of at least 20 people weekly to offer water, snacks, personal hygiene items, and access to treatment.

RELATED | Ballard encampment grows after city removes nearby site along Burke-Gilman Trail

The group told KOMO it believes more can be done at the city level, from policy to housing, to get the homeless connected with shelter and services.

A woman working at the Fred Meyer off NW 45th Street and 9th Avenue captured video of a fire near tents at an encampment across the street. A day later, off camera, she told KOMO News she worries about the safety of the people living in the tents and Ballard neighbors, in addition to concerns about alleged open-air drug use at the encampment.

“We became homeless because of certain situations, and we turned to drugs, and unfortunately, addiction comes next, you know?” Crystal Rawlings told KOMO News. She has set up her tent on multiple streets in Ballard, and said she’s approaching one year of being opioid-free.

She believes there’s been more city outreach since the start of the new mayoral administration to connect people living on the streets with services, but knows there’s not enough transitional housing for everyone who needs or wants it.

She and the Ballard Community Task Force on Homelessness and Hunger urge the city to stop encampment removals that push this group to another block.

RELATED | City removes Ballard encampment as neighboring businesses raise housing concerns

“We’re not abominations. We’re not obstructions, and we’re not trash, so stop sweeping us,” Rawlings stated.

The city is still aiming to reach Mayor Katie Wilson’s goal of adding 1,000 new units of shelter in 2026 and recently opened a tiny home village in nearby Interbay, but fell short of the goal of 500 new units by June.

Andrea Suarez with We Heart Seattle estimates at least 20 people living on the street keep getting moved around Ballard, from behind the Albert Lee store to Leary Avenue to NW 45th Street behind the Fred Meyer.

“This encampment has people that’ve been homeless for more than five years. We know their names and faces. They’re still here. They’re still stuck in late-phase addiction, frankly because it’s permitted,” Suarez explained.

RELATED | Viral makeshift homeless shelter with chimney dismantled by Seattle city crews

She believes a camping ban on city sidewalks would help encourage more people to accept shelter, and help stop the cycle of moving people without

“It is an underserved community. I think it is unfair,” Suarez added. “We’ve tried to balance between enablement and really giving people a hand up, but without the teeth and backup for the work of outreach workers, it starts to feel futile, and that’s why we get burned out.”

The mayor’s office was working to send data about its homeless response in Ballard as of Wednesday afternoon.

The Ballard Community Task Force on Homelessness and Hunger estimates there have been nine Ballard-area encampment removals so far this year.

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