SALT LAKE CITY — Just how much money is UTA losing on passengers who don't pay to use TRAX or FrontRunner trains? Checking everyone's ticket would be impossible.

UTA spokesman Gerry Carpenter said, "When you carry close to 17 million passengers on TRAX and FrontRunner, it becomes a challenge to check the fare for every single passenger."

Carpenter says UTA does have a full-time police force, and part of its job is to check whether or not customers paid the full fares. But he says the fare-evasion rate among its customers is lower than it is for other agencies in other states.

"(In 2011) UTA officers checked about 660,000 passengers, total, and found about 17,000 passengers to be in violation," Carpenter said.

That works out to about 2.5 percent of customers who skip out on paying.

"If every single one of those (would have paid) a full cash fare, we'd be losing a little less than a million dollars in revenue," he said.

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But Carpenter says UTA is able to recover most of that money through the fines issued. For a first time offense, the fine is $157. After that, the fine is $314. He says measures like gates and turnstiles may work somewhat, but the costs of installing them are prohibitive.

"It would run in the millions of dollars and, ultimately, you're still not going to stop everyone who wants to avoid paying a fare," Carpenter said.

He says there will always be a portion of the population that will try to avoid paying. But he tells people that if they do use the train without paying, they'll eventually get caught.

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