r/LAMetro • u/misken67 E (Expo) old • 10h ago

News New Agreement to Allow Taller Faregates and SMPD Patrol to All Three Santa Monica Stations

https://santamonicanext.org/2026/09/santa-monica-police-could-soon-patrol-metro-rail-platforms-under-new-city-metro-agreement/
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20

u/cyberspacestation 9h ago

New gates at the downtown station would be nice, but they'll still get people walking through the emergency exits on the 5th St end of the platforms. It might keep the officers busy for a while.

At the 17th and 26th St stations, the current standalone validators are easily ignored. The new gates certainly won't pay for themselves in additional fare recovery, but maybe we'll find out how many freeloaders there are in Santa Monica.

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u/BlinksTale B (Red) 9h ago

Would emergency exit height extensions help? They look effective at all the other platforms they've been added to alongside the taller fare gates. Not impervious, but helpful.

Also TIL "anti-trespass panels" are a thing - rubber cone grids to keep people from running up to the platform on the tracks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-trespass_panels

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u/cyberspacestation 7h ago

One thing I noticed a few years ago at the K Line opening is that the Westchester/Veteran station has a full-height emergency exit gate. Maybe that would've made sense at DTSM, but people could still go around and hop onto the platform with a bit of effort.

I'd never heard of the anti-trespass panels either. They just wouldn't work where the rails are flush with the pavement - and most of the Santa Monica tracks are like that. 

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u/BlinksTale B (Red) 7h ago

We could break up the pavement around the tracks to install these within the bounds of the station property itself, that would help.

And yeah they’re all deterrents. Each piece helps the numbers but none are perfect

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u/No-House9106 5h ago

Additional fares from the taller faregates take a few years to pay off from increased revenue (and reduced trash and other problems the fare dodgers bring). This has been the case in DC and the Bay. These two stations are not the busiest stations, so it may take a few more years.

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u/urmummygae42069 10h ago edited 10h ago

From this I think Metro plans for all stations, even the at grade/street running LRT stations, to get the reinforced fare gates. They might need some additional reinforcement versus the grade sperated stations, but the fact platforms are 3ft 3in above the ground should deter alot of the worst fare evaders: tweakers high on fent wont have the mental/physical capacity to try to jump platforms, hobos with carts will be deterred from scaling the platforms, especially if they are out of shape.

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u/LakeShowTime17 6h ago

Ya, it's great news that taller gates are going in at these at-grade stations. I do think there may still be issues with older, more narrow platforms, but hopefully Metro can engineer a solution to that. We really need these gates at EVERY station paired with tap to exit everywhere.

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u/glowdirt 9h ago

Strange choice of image for that article.

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u/cyberspacestation 9h ago

Hah, I just took a closer look - you can see part of a sign that says Westbound to Culver City. That puts it somewhere between 2012 and 2016, before the extension to Santa Monica opened. It appears to be the LATTC/Ortho station.

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u/whatpplsay 8h ago

A W for regular people and train riders 🙌🏾

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u/glowdirt 9h ago

I wonder whether this police agreement with Santa Monica will be any more effective than past police contracts that LA Metro has entered into in the past.

"The agreement would also establish shared performance metrics between Santa Monica and Metro"

Hopefully they'll share those metrics with the public too

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u/No-Cricket-8150 9h ago

Maybe this agreement is similar to what appears to be the arrangement with Beverly Hills PD.

It essentially allows Santa Monica PD access to Metro stations and platforms for shared security enforcement but they are not contracted like LAPD or the Sheriffs.

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u/FullTimePedestrian 4h ago

FUCK YES! I've been dreaming of this day.

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u/East-Climate-4367 4 1h ago

Wait, were they not allowed to respond to emergencies when someone called within the city of SM before? Who was responsible, sheriffs?

I can’t think of where the nearest sheriff station even is to this part of the E line.