Metro offers reduced fares for low-income riders, but there's not many takers

When WMATA General Manager Randy Clarke took to Twitter a year ago to commend the D.C. Council for its passage of the Secure D.C. crime bill, he was careful to talk about both a carrot and a stick.

The stick, in this case, was an expanded crackdown on fare evasion in the transit system. The new law made it a criminal offense for anyone to refuse or otherwise fail to provide Metro Transit Police with accurate name and address information if stopped.

The carrot? “We also have reduced-fare programs,” Clarke said. “Including Metro Lift for SNAP recipients.”

Metro Lift was introduced in June 2023, about six months after WMATA first ramped up fare enforcement in the system. The program offers a 50% discount on rail and bus rides to recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program  (SNAP) – food benefits – and was touted as a major step towards increasing access to transit for low-income residents. Metrorail rides can range between $2.25 and $6.75 each, while regular bus routes cost a flat $2.25. That might not seem like much, but for those receiving SNAP benefits, they can present a significant burden: In order to qualify for SNAP, a four-person household must have a net income of less than $2,600 per month. Metro's program was the latest in a string of similar initiatives enacted around the country – including those in Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York City – and there was hope that it could make a real difference in the lives of low-income D.C. residents.

But nearly two years after the program launched, enrollment remains low. According to new data obtained from WMATA, just 6,695 D.C. residents were enrolled in Metro Lift as of March — 4.7% of the eligible population, based on enrollment data provided by the D.C. Department of Human Services that listed 141,346 people receiving SNAP benefits as of January.

Metro Transit Police interventions in fare evasion incidents, on the other hand, have exploded. According to MTPD data, transit police officers made 7,389 stops (citations or arrests) for fare evasion within city limits in 2024, up from 618 the year before – a 1,095% increase.

So why aren’t people enrolling in Metro Lift?

There is one innocuous answer: They might just be using WMATA’s other reduced-fare programs. The agency offers the same 50% discount to seniors and people with disabilities; provides SmarTrip cards for DDOT’s Kids Ride Free program, which distributes pre-loaded cards to 5-21 year olds enrolled in any of D.C.’s public, charter, private, or parochial schools; and operates U-Pass for full-time college students. It’s difficult to tell, however, how many of the people enrolled in those programs are also SNAP recipients.

“I do think that a lot of people don't know about it,” says Ashley Moore, Associate Director of Care Management at Bread for the City, a long-standing D.C. nonprofit which provides social services to the District’s low-income communities. As part of her work, Moore helps connect people to local resources and government programs. “We have helped [people] apply for Metro Lift, but it does not come up a ton.”

Within Metro stations, the Lift program is often promoted as part of WMATA’s ongoing Pay The Fare campaign, which warns would-be fare evaders of the fines they could face if caught. (In D.C., that’s $50.) At the bottom of Pay The Fare signage is a notice inviting riders to visit the “Fares” section of WMATA’s website or call the agency’s helpline for further information about fare assistance programs — but Metro Lift is not mentioned by name, nor is it directly linked to.

“I haven't seen much outreach in the Metro stations,” says Jeremiah Lowery, Policy Director for Systemic Advocacy and Law Reform at Legal Aid DC and a daily Metro rider. “I think there’s a lot of people who just aren’t aware.”

A WMATA spokesperson said in a statement that the agency currently promotes their reduced-fare programs through a variety of events and local partnerships, with an emphasis on communities they believe are most likely to benefit. These include “job fairs, food distribution at pantries, community college resource fairs, dedicated residencies at public libraries” and “shelter outreach, and collaborations with religious organizations and nonprofits.” The spokesperson said the agency has conducted more than 109 outreach events since July 2024.

Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who chairs the D.C. Council’s Committee on Transportation and Environment, says he believes the agency is serious about Metro Lift’s success. Allen previously advanced the Metro for D.C. Act, which sought to make Metrobuses fare-free and provide subsidized SmarTrip cards to city residents.

“I've talked to [Randy Clarke], he feels very strongly about this,” says Allen. “I think WMATA values the program.”

The issue, says Allen, is the enrollment process itself.

“You're asking people who are already struggling to pay the bills month to month to now jump through one more hoop,” he says. “Go fill out this form, show up at this certain office, wait for a while, bring the right paperwork, have all that paperwork checked, or you don't get this program.” 

While the Metro Lift signup process is fairly streamlined, Moore says, it has certain requirements — namely an existing SmarTrip card, a SNAP card, government-issued ID, and a phone number. If applicants want to sign up other members of their household, they need to also submit a SNAP benefits summary.

Moore points out that not everyone can manage this, especially people with limited means. “You do have to have those three cards, type in some numbers from those cards, and even upload a copy of those cards,” she says. “In the office, that's easy for us to do, but obviously that might be a barrier for people.”

Lowery also notes that people in poverty often have their hands full, leaving them little time or energy to go through the process of signing up for government services. “From the policy standpoint, we think that people have the time when oftentimes they just really don't,” he says.

What happens to those people is a second, and perhaps more troubling question. Are some of them choosing to evade the fare, when an alternative is available to them?

It's difficult to tell. MTPD does not record whether people detained for fare evasion receive SNAP benefits. Incident locations could be compared geographically to SNAP enrollment per ZIP code or census tract, but this doesn’t account for whether the people being detained actually live in the area. Organizations that provide legal services to low-income communities — such as Legal Aid DC — might be able to speak to people’s circumstances for a number of other infractions, but since fare evasion is no longer a criminal act, they rarely come into contact with offenders.

What is known is that MTPD action against fare evaders is on the rise. Transit officers intervened in 911 fare evasion incidents within the city in January 2025, the highest monthly total since WMATA resumed ticketing a little over two years ago. But, Allen says, that still constitutes a fairly recent change in policy. 

“You would expect the numbers to be higher, but simply because they're actually doing more enforcement,” he says.

Lowery, on the other hand, notes that while enforcement policy may have changed, the circumstances of D.C.’s low-income residents have not.

“They have to make a choice, either they take the chance to fare-evade and get a fine or potentially locked up, or they just don't reach their destination,” he says. “At the end of the day, Secure DC didn’t put more money in people’s pockets.”