STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A longtime Staten Island express bus rider claims he was unjustly ticketed and removed from his morning express bus, causing him to miss a meeting at work.

Walter Priven, who has ridden the SIM9 (formerly X9) from Father Capodanno Blvd/Atlantic Ave for the past 20 years, said he was removed from the bus and ticketed for fare evasion on Wednesday, July 10, despite paying the full fare.

The MTA, which has recently increased efforts to combat fare evasion amid reports of hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue, has said it is currently reviewing the incident.

“Deterring fare evasion makes the system more fair for everyone, and personnel are trained to treat customers with professionalism and courtesy. We’re reviewing this incident," said MTA spokesman Shams Tarek.

Priven said that upon arriving at his stop Wednesday morning, he witnessed three MTA enforcement agents ticketing another commuter before turning their focus to the arriving bus.

“I swiped my card and I even checked the reader that shows you how much you have left to make sure I paid and that it had taken out the right amount,” Priven recalled.

After paying his fare, Priven said he walked to the back of the bus and took a seat, noticing after about a minute that the bus had not started moving.

At that point, Priven said that one of the MTA enforcement agents approached him, asking if he had just gotten on the bus and if he had paid his fare.

Upon answering yes to both questions, Priven recalled being asked by the agent to follow her off the bus, at which point he was told he hadn’t paid his fare.

Priven insisted he had paid his fare, having seen the new account balance after swiping his card, but the enforcement agent and bus driver refused to believe him. The commuter suggested that the agents swipe his MetroCard on the next bus and to prove the card contained sufficient fare.

“The bus came and I walked up with one of the agents who swiped my card and it said “XFER” -- as in transfer, meaning that I had already swiped it earlier that morning, otherwise it wouldn’t say that. It also showed I had about $20 left on the card," Priven explained.

At that point, Priven, who had already been issued the $100 fare evasion summons before the second bus arrived, said he was simply directed to contest the violation.

INCREASED ENFORCEMENT

This incident comes less than a month after Gov. Andrew Cuomo reached an agreement with the MTA to add 500 uniformed enforcement officers to New York City’s bus and subway system to combat fare evasion.

The team of 500 new patrol personnel includes 200 redeployed MTA officers, 200 additional NYPD officers who have been assigned to transit and 100 bridge and tunnel officers who have been transferred to New York City transit.

From January to March, 25 percent of local MTA bus riders did not pay the fare, up from 18.4 percent over the same stretch in 2018, according to recently released MTA data.

These numbers represent a nearly 36 percent increase in bus fare evasion rate over last year, costing the MTA millions in potential generated revenue.

MTA estimates put the agency on pace to lose approximately $144 million to bus fare evasion and $116 million to subway fare evasion in 2019, totaling $260 million in potential lost revenue.

In 2018, the MTA lost an estimated $225 million in revenue as a result of bus and subway fare evasion, with $128 million coming specifically from buses.