As the consultants had previously indicated, their report doesn’t recommend adding turnstiles or ticket-takers. Some local officials had advocated such moves after some high-profile violent crimes on the system in recent years.

But members of the consulting team say there isn’t much correlation between fare evasion and serious crime.

As in most other light-rail systems in the United States, Metro enforces fares by randomly requiring riders on the trains to produce time-stamped tickets.

The report doesn’t cite any statistics, but Stuart says MetroLink’s “rate of crime and the amount of crime is fairly typical” for this type of system, she said.

She cites disorderly conduct as a problem that makes MetroLink unpleasant to ride, such as the flouting of rules against loud music, smoking, eating and drinking.

She has said an engaged, consistent security presence can deal with that and the perception by the public that the incidence of crime is worse than it really is.