I'll get on my soapbox every time to also point out that a fareless system is also cheaper for everyone to operate. Operating and maintaining fare systems costs

I'll get on my soapbox every time to also point out that a fareless system is also cheaper for everyone to operate. Operating and maintaining fare systems costs millions of dollars (hundreds of millions when they upgrade the system), enforcing and gating fares reduces system efficiency. Rolling those costs into taxes instead will always cost less than collecting at point of operation. Fares are already too low to cover operational costs, so at this point it's practically theater.