Getting around Los Angeles can be a puzzle of trains, transfers, and timing, but Metro is bringing back a feature meant to make the system run smoother, and a little safer. As public transit continues to grow in ridership after the pandemic slump, keeping stations clean and secure has become one of the agency’s top goals.
Starting Monday, November 17, the TAP-to-Exit program is officially returning to North Hollywood Station on the B Line and Union Station on the B and D Lines, as Metro announced in an official press release. It’s also expanding for the first time to Pomona North on the A Line. From that day on, anyone riding through those stations will need to tap their TAP card both when they enter and when they leave.
The program has already been tested around the city, and the results were encouraging. Metro says that when TAP-to-Exit was active at NoHo and Downtown Santa Monica stations, reports of vandalism, drug use, and fights dropped sharply, and riders said they felt noticeably safer. It also helped recover thousands of previously unpaid fares, money that goes back into maintaining and improving the transit system.
Tapping to exit might sound new to Angelenos, but it’s a normal part of taking public transit in cities like San Francisco, Washington D.C., and even Tokyo.