BOSTON — Fare gates are coming to Boston’s three busiest commuter rail stations in an effort to improve fare collections.
Keolis Commuter Services, which operates the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s commuter trains, will install the gates at North Station, South Station, and the Back Bay station in 2020, the Boston Globe reports, with North Station likely to receive the gates first. Those three stations are where about 90 percent of all commuter trips begin or end.
A Keolis spokesman told the Globe the company is still determining how the gates would be placed, with an eye toward using the placement to manage crowds.
The addition of the gates — already used on MBTA subways — will mark a change for passengers used to dealing with ticketing once onboard their trains, and could be an obstacle for those rushing to catch trains at the last moment.
“People will have to slightly adjust their behavior,” Keolis spokesman Justin Thompson told the newspaper. “It certainly is a change, and we’re confident passengers will adapt. We hear from passengers all the time that fare collection is important to them.”
