SEPTA to raise fares, move toward electronic payment

BY DAN GERINGER, Daily News Staff Writer geringd@phillynews.com, 215-854-5961

Posted: March 15, 2013

THERE'S a good chance that SEPTA riders will not throw shoes at the transit agency's board of directors when public hearings on proposed fare increases are held in April.

Before becoming SEPTA chairman in 1999, Pasquale "Pat" Deon remembers board members being pelted with footgear by riders angered by a previous chairman's habit of hiking fares steeply after waiting too many years to raise them.

But "cloudy with a chance of flying leather" has not been the public-hearings forecast for more than a decade, not since Deon and the SEPTA board began modest, cost-of-living-based fare hikes at regular three-year intervals.

SEPTA announced Thursday that as of July 1, cash fares will increase to $2.25 from the current $2 on buses, subways and trolleys. Cash fares will see a further increase to $2.50 when the long-awaited, smart-card, New Payment Technology (NPT) arrives in 2014.

Tokens, now $1.55, will rise to $1.80, which will remain the price for discounted single-trip fares on NPT cards purchased from kiosks and on smartphones. Transfers will remain a dollar. Weekly TransPasses will cost $24.50, up from $22; monthly TransPasses will cost $92, up $9.

There will be four Regional Rail zones instead of the current five, and advance-purchase, one-way fares will increase to $4.75 from the current $4 in Zone 1, and cost 25 cents for each additional zone travelled.

Officials estimated $25 million in new revenue.

John McGee, chief of NPT, said that the new payment methods will replace the SEPTA workers accepting cash with vending machines and gates, but he stressed there would be no layoffs.

"Our cashiers will have the opportunity - instead of being gate keepers as they are today - to take the role more of a greeter to provide information," he said.

SEPTA is holding public meetings at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. in Philadelphia (SEPTA headquarters, 1234 Market St., April 17), and at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. at the Delaware County Courthouse (April 15, Media), the Montgomery County Human Services Center (April 16, Norristown), West Chester Borough Hall (West Chester, April 19) and the Bucks County Free Library (April 22, Doylestown).

- Staff writer Jad Sleiman contributed to this report.

On Twitter: @DanGeringer