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Two stories are going around about Sound Transit and fare gates. One: gates barely matter for revenue. Two: shame on ST for being $10B+ in the hole and still not having them. The reality is more nuanced, and ST actually did its own study on exactly this: www.liveableissaquah.org/archive/Soun... 1/6🧵

The whoa, way big-deal case: if ~45% of Link riders are skipping fares, gating all Link stations could net up to ~$750M over 20 years. That's real money. But that 45% evasion number comes from the peak of the pandemic, when compliance cratered. 3/6 🧵

The who care, barely-worth-it case: if evasion is actually ~15% (85% paying), the math flips. Gating every Link station takes ~18 years just to break even, and gating the whole system stops penciling out at all. Same gates, opposite verdict. 4/6 🧵

So where are we really? ST board data puts broad fare payment around 63% (up from 56% in 2022), while ~85% of riders who actually get checked have valid fare. Neither's a clean evasion number, but both point well below the pandemic-peak 45%. Source: seattletransitblog.com/2026/05/21/t... 5/6 🧵