Fare gates are coming to Capitol Hill Station, and the neighborhood has feelings about it.
As CHS reported last month, the Sound Transit board voted to move forward with an $87 million pilot to install fare gates at 14 stations on the 1 and 2 Lines, Capitol Hill included. Gates aren’t expected to show up at Broadway and John until 2029 or 2030, but the vote is a real shift for an agency that has run Link as an open, proof-of-payment system since 2009.
The reason: systemwide farebox recovery has been running around 11% to 14%, far short of Sound Transit’s 40% goal. Fare evasion hit roughly 45% of riders in 2023 before gaining with Fare Ambassadors on board; the agency projects it’ll still sit near 25% by 2029, well above the 2.4% rate seen before the pandemic. Capitol Hill Station itself sees about 11,000 boardings a day, some 40% above pre-pandemic levels.
CHS asked a few riders at the station what they think.
Matt is on board: “I’m pro. I’m a fan of fare gates,” though he doubts gates move much revenue on their own. Dee pointed to peer cities: “San Francisco, New York, Tokyo. They all have fare gates.” For riders who already pay, Dee said, nothing changes: “How would it impact you? Not at all.”
Steven called gates “probably the most straightforward way” to handle evasion. David, who pays every month on a senior card, noted gated platforms are standard elsewhere too, like Vancouver: “It’s not like some radical departure.” Lily saw it as a fit for high-traffic, tourist-heavy stops like Capitol Hill: “It’s not the only way, but I think it is one way to do it.”
Skeptical
Mia called the plan “a waste of money,” pointing to New York as a cautionary tale on maintenance costs, and would rather see subsidized ORCA cards. Dana was blunter: “Unnecessary spending… people don’t want to pay if they’re not going to pay, and maybe they can’t pay.”
Troy favors the trust system, though he admits the numbers give him pause: “If a third of the people aren’t paying, that’s a high number.” Jack wants proof before Sound Transit spends $87 million: “I don’t see a lot of crime in the system here, so I don’t know if that’s a solution without a problem.”
The equity question
Madeline, who says she doesn’t always pay, worries about access: “A lot of people will lose access to transit, and it’s important for everybody to have.” Sally tied the gates to the station’s role as informal shelter space: “If you close this off, where are those people going?” Angela reframed the whole debate: “It shouldn’t be about the gates. It should be about what is the solution so that everybody can get where they need to go.”
Several riders said light rail should just be free. Others who support gates called that unrealistic. Sally pointed to Boston’s model, where wealthier riders effectively subsidized the rest. “You have to weigh the pros and cons.”
Sound Transit’s financial modeling projects the $87 million investment will reach a break-even point within two to three years of rollout. By launching the pilot with the 14 enclosed, high-volume stations like Capitol Hill rather than attempting a costlier systemwide buildout, Sound Transit expects to capture roughly 85% of overall ridership. Addressing affordability, transit officials says that light rail isn’t designed to be self-sustaining — fares are only budgeted to cover 22% of day-to-day operating costs, with local taxes subsidizing the rest alongside discount programs like ORCA LIFT aimed at keeping fares accessible.
Design alone is budgeted at $6 million of the $87 million total, and nothing physical changes at Broadway and John for years. For now, riders at Broadway and John will keep doing what they’ve always done: tap in, or don’t, and hope the ambassadors are in a forgiving mood.
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