Introducing The Future of Fare Collection

SEPTA has awarded a contract that will provide the equipment and services for a new fare payment system. Our plans for bus, trolley, and subway operations are fairly straightforward and will be similar to today's fareboxes and turnstiles. Regional Rail presents a different challenge because we will be the first transit agency to include new technologies for commuter rail fare payment. Fare modernization efforts in other cities such as Boston, Chicago, and New York did not extend to commuter rail, so we will be establishing new parameters and practices for our operations as well as the industry.

That being said, we recognize the importance of offering a universal fare media that can be accepted throughout the entire SEPTA network of Buses, Trolleys, Subways, Regional Rail, and CCT operations and at SEPTA parking facilities.

Over the past several months, an important part of our new payment technologies work has focused on shifting most Regional Rail fare payment from on board the train to stations.

To assist in this effort, we invited a group of Regional Stakeholders representing the City of Philadelphia, each of the suburban counties, Penn DOT, DVRPC, DVARP, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and others to provide guidance on the system design for Regional Rail. We asked the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia to moderate the sessions and report on the findings, which you can read here.