PORTLAND, Ore. - Take a ride on a TriMet train and chances are you are sharing the tracks with someone taking a free ride.

Portland is a model city for its light rail system.  City planners travel from around the world to see it and there is no doubt that mass transit is necessary to keep a city moving.

However, not everyone is paying their fair share.  Every day, there are 100,000 trips taken on TriMet's MAX trains, but according to TriMet's own estimate, nearly one out of ten people do not pay.

"Most of the people that I know, honestly, most of the time will just skip fares because they know that they're not going to be seen by anyone," a rider told KATU News.

There are fare inspectors, but only 18 of them to cover 44 miles of tracks all day and all night.

KATU News rode the MAX train for 10 hours one day, from the morning rush to the evening commute, looking for fare inspectors and fare evaders.

It did not take long to find people without tickets and most of the people who did not pay looked like they could have afforded to. TriMet estimates that about eight percent of its riders board the train without paying.

What about the fare inspectors?  We rode the train all day and did not see any at all.  Many say that is why they do not pay.

"Honestly, I've lived here about a year and I've seen them probably five or six times and I ride every day," a rider told KATU News.

Passenger fares account for 21 percent of TriMet's operating budget.  The rest comes from the federal government and payroll taxes.  In other words, it is subsidized by taxpayers.

So how much money is TriMet losing by not collecting all those fares?  Do the math - if 8 percent of riders are not paying and people ride the MAX trains 32 million times a year, at $1.70 a trip, that is about $4.35 million that TriMet could collect.

So why so few fare inspectors? 

"Considering we have 105 MAX trains, (a fare inspector) could have been on the train right behind you," said Mary Fetsch, spokeswoman for TriMet.

"You could ride for weeks on end and never see a fare inspector," said John Charles with the Cascade Policy Institute. 

Charles is one of MAX's most outspoken critics.  He says the problem is not the fare inspectors, it is Fareless Square, which allows people to board for free at certain stops.

TriMet spends $1.1 million to fund its fare inspector program.  Their 18 inspectors ride the trains about 18 hours a day, seven days a week.