An exit fare is a method of collecting ridership fees, or fares, from a transportation system, where the fee (or part of the fee) is collected from passengers upon reaching their destination.
Examples
Exit fares were used on the
lower bus tunnel at Harvard station had exit fares because fares could not be collected during boarding. With the final two trackless trolley routes being converted to standard bus routes with boarding relocated to the upper bus tunnel at Harvard, exit fares were entirely eliminated from the MBTA system beginning March 13, 2022.[1]
In
AirTrain at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The system uses an exit fare to distinguish between intra-airport trips, which are free, and connections to the subway and commuter rail, which are not. A similar system applies at Orly Airport in Paris, where the Orlyval service is free of charge between the airport's terminals, but passengers alighting at Antony station
need to pay.
The
Howard Beach Station
which entailed the deposit of two tokens for those entering along the line or one token on exit for those arriving from other parts of the system. The unpopular double fare was abolished in 1975.
Exit fares are also charged on the
Tompkinsville station, because the primary function of the railway is to transport commuters on Staten Island to/from the Staten Island Ferry terminal at St. George. Commuters heading to Manhattan via the ferry pay upon exiting the train at St. George in the morning, and upon entry at St. George in the afternoon. Exit fares are charged at Tompkinsville because it is also within walking distance of the ferry terminal. Before exit fares were charged at Tompkinsville, one could avoid paying the exit fare at St. George by exiting at Tompkinsville and walking to the ferry terminal. By charging entry and exit fares at St. George and Tompkinsville, the other stations on the Staten Island Railway can be run at far lower cost, without any fare collection equipment or station employees present.[citation needed
]
On the Washington Metro, riders process their SmarTrip cards for both entering and exiting the system. The fare is actually deducted from the rider's card upon exiting the system based on the time of day and distance traveled. Exitfare machines located near the fare gates allow riders to add additional value to their cards should they lack sufficient value to exit the station at that location.
BART Beige Line to Oakland International Airport
charges exit fare for riders leaving the airport.
The
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, uses exit fares to implement a free ride zone in downtownPittsburgh. Riders going toward downtown (and on routes that do not enter downtown) pay on entry. Riders leaving downtown pay on exit. Riders traveling entirely within downtown do not pay at all. After 7 pm, no free rides are provided downtown and all trips are charged a fare upon entry. Metro Transit in King County, Washington
, used a similar system until it was ended on September 29, 2012.
Many lower-volume point-to-point ticket-based transit services use exit fares in one direction, to avoid the expense of maintaining ticket offices at both ends of the line.
