Fare evasion is soaring, and it’ll take a full-court press to turn it back around.

New figures from the MTA show that one in four city bus riders didn’t pay the $2.75 fare during the first three months of 2019, up from 18% for the same period in 2018 and 13% in 2017.

The rate in the subways was just 4% in the first quarter, but that’s the highest since 2014 — and lost revenues have hit $243 million these past 12 months, on track to hit $266 million this year. In all, fare evasion is costing over $100 million more a year than in 2015.

The root cause is a loss of the will to enforce the law. Bus drivers have largely stopped calling out evaders — in part thanks to union advice, as assaults on MTA workers are also up 15% over the last four years.

One step forward is a Gov. Andrew Cuomo initiative to redeploy 500 MTA, MTA Bridge and Tunnel and NYPD cops to target fare-beaters at busy subway and bus stops. Manhattan DA Cy Vance is also kicking in $10 million a year from asset-forfeiture windfalls to help out.

Vance might also rethink his “decline-to-prosecute” policy, which has cut fare-beating prosecutions 96%. It sure seems to be sending the wrong message, when every New York leader needs to start sending the right one.