SEPTA smart-card proposal panned by passenger advocates

SEPTA's new "smart card" fare system could mean that rail passengers would get a free ride into Philadelphia and pay a double fare on the way home.

Gated entrances with subway-style turnstiles would be installed in rail stations in the Center City zone, where riders would tap electronic-chip fare cards to board outbound trains, under a SEPTA proposal. On leaving the trains, riders would tap their cards on other electronic readers, so the appropriate fare could be deducted.

However, riders going beyond Zone 2 would need to have their fares deducted by a conductor with a handheld reader.

That scenario is outlined in bid documents prepared for three companies interested in creating SEPTA's new electronic fare system.

SEPTA officials said that the scenario is only one possible design for the fare system and that it was "premature" to discuss the proposal.

But passenger advocates and SEPTA's own citizen advisory panel were quick to criticize both the proposal and SEPTA's secretiveness about its plans.

"It's an open invitation to legal fare evasion," said Matthew Mitchell, of the Delaware Valley Association of Rail Passengers. He said passengers might ride the train into Center City for free and then take a cheaper bus or subway home.

SEPTA is "following the wrong way, both technically and in terms of communications with their customers," Mitchell said. "The planners of this have had tunnel vision - in their effort to solve one problem, which is that not all tickets are getting punched on the trains now, they have introduced a raft of new problems."

Bob Clearfield, vice chairman of SEPTA's Citizen Advisory Committee, said it was regrettable that the panel "was kept out of the design/selection process since we are the ultimate users of any package placed into service."

"By law, the agency is supposed to consult with the CAC on projects like [the new fare system], yet it has not done so," Clearfield said in a statement. "Briefings have been minimal, and requests for detailed information have been denied. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and it needs to be done right."

The one-way fare scenario is outlined in a 777-page addendum to SEPTA's "New Payment Technologies System Technical Specification" dated June 29, obtained by The Inquirer through an open-records request. The scenario was first reported by the PlanPhilly.com website.