<p>The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority is seeing higher passenger counts at train stations where it has installed new, high-tech gates meant to stop fare evaders.</p><p>The numbers suggest that as many as one in four train riders may not have been counted before.</p><p>The average weekday passenger count at the first 13 stations to get the new gates rose from 43,783 in April 2005 to more than 60,000 in April 2006, a 37 percent increase.</p><p>The nearly 6-foot gates being installed at MARTA stations replace the aging, rickety turnstiles the rail system had been using since it began more than 25 years ago.</p><p>The Garnett station in downtown Atlanta and the Inman Park-Reynoldstown station in northeast Atlanta have seen the biggest increases. The turnstiles at those locations were among the most problematic in the system, MARTA officials said.</p><p>At Inman Park, the average weekday count tripled, to 2,908. The Garnett station saw its count jump from 443 in April 2005 to 1,909 last month, a 331 percent increase.</p><p>MARTA officials are still evaluating the information to determine the cause of the increases. But they say it could not be caused by fare evaders alone.</p><p>Officials speculate that recent hikes in gas prices may have caused an increase in overall ridership. Also, because turnstiles broke down frequently, some paying customers may have been forced to hop over them or walk through handicapped entrances, causing them to not be counted.</p><p>The new fare gates are also designed to provide a more accurate head count of passengers, which MARTA officials say is needed for planning purposes. The system plans to hire consultants later this year to evaluate and possibly revamp the system's bus routes and train schedules.</p><p>The data provides "a better idea of the volume, the number of people, in a station at a particular time of day ... so we can better meet their needs," said Jannet Thoms, MARTA's chief information officer. "We don't want buses running around with five people on them."</p><p>MARTA is spending $190 million to install the electronic "Breeze" fare gate system at its 38 rail stations and on board all 556 buses. The gates are up at half the rail stations, with all buses and the rest of the stations expected to be on line by the end of June. The Breeze system uses electronic fare cards instead of tokens.</p><p>The gates are designed to curb fare evasion, which MARTA officials say costs up to $10 million a year. Unscrupulous riders often hopped over the thigh-high turnstiles or slipped through the handicapped gates without paying.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc688)</p>
