SEPTA Taking Another Step Toward Driving Transit Riders To New Fare System
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There will soon be fewer places where SEPTA city transit riders can buy old-style magnetic-stripe TransPasses.
Starting June 1, SEPTA will stop selling paper magnetic-stripe weekly and monthly TransPasses at its transit sales offices and at cashiers' booths. It's an effort to encourage riders to get a reloadable SEPTA Key card. But you can still get an old-school paper TransPass after next Thursday at suburban Regional Rail sales locations and at participating retailers, says Kevin O'Brien, SEPTA's senior project manager.
"If you buy your TransPasses now at the supermarket or the convenience store, that will continue for now into the fall," O'Brien said. "At that point, then that transition will start to take place."
Later this year, SEPTA plans to expand that retail network from 300 to 1,500 stores. O'Brien says about 15 percent of riders use SEPTA Key -- he says most transit riders are still using legacy forms of payment.
Also in the works, he says, the ability to order a SEPTA key card online and have it mailed to your home.
SEPTA still plans to phase out tokens, but no date is set for that.