Metro riders beware: LA Metro is reviving its TAP-to-exit initiative at both ends of the red line beginning Monday, November 17. That means that all riders will have to scan their TAP cards to exit the turnstiles at North Hollywood and Union Station, and anyone who didn't pay to board will have to pay to leave. (And possibly, allegedly, face a fine.)
Right now, TAP-to-exit is only in effect at the E Line’s Downtown Santa Monica Station but, next week, the North Hollywood and Union Station stops along the B Line will resume the program as well. Additionally, LA Metro announced that it will institute the procedure at the A Line’s Pomona North Station.
Initially launched at the North Hollywood station in May 2024, the system was reportedly behind a 90% decrease in loitering at the station and a 12% decrease in crime at that stop, with 90% of surveyed riders saying that it made the station cleaner, while 86% felt safer. Union Station instituted the practice on February 18, 2025, but in April 2025, the Los Angeles Fire Department demanded that LA Metro cease the program amid concerns about potential bottlenecks because there was no system in place to unlock the turnstiles during an emergency.
Once the program ground to a halt, LA Metro reported that crime at the North Hollywood stop increased by 67% and at Union Station by a whopping 116%. Metro also reported that it lost almost $35,000 in fares at both stations.
Now, it seems, LA Metro has sufficiently addressed the LAFD's concerns to resume TAP-to-exit and even add a station to the roster of participating locations. As the agency wrote on its website when announcing its return, "In the first month of the program at North Hollywood, 15,000 unpaid rides were identified and paid for upon exit, amounting to an 11 percent increase in fare compliance. Overall, 120,000 fares were collected because of TAP-to-exit, recovering over $130,000 in fare revenue that we can use to maintain and improve our system."
The program is not unique to LA: San Francisco, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. all utilize tap-to-exit strategies to fight fare evasion as much as possible.