SEPTA's new ticketing policy spawns long lines

A new fare collecting policy for Regional Rail in Philadelphia led to long lines Monday night. During the evening rush hour SEPTA started collecting fares and tickets from riders before allowing them onto platforms at Jefferson, Suburban, 30th Street, Temple and University City stations. That means no more buying tickets on the train for people departing Philadelphia from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., at least for the near term. The result of the new fare policy looked like this...

My colleague Diane Mastrull was at Jefferson Station about 6 p.m. Monday and took these pictures. The worst of the lines were at the ticket counter, she said. SEPTA said lines won't always be this bad, though. Monday is the first of the month, when regular rail riders buy their monthly passes. Ambassadors were at the station to help riders cope with the new ticketing system.

"It definitely slowed me down a lot," said Nakia Hawkins, 24, of North Philadelphia. "It was strange to see they were checking fares ahead of time."

She was heading to Temple University Station after leaving work at Broad and Chestnut streets.

The change was yet another shift Regional Rail riders will have to get used to since a third of SEPTA's rail fleet was pulled from service due to a flawed component. With 120 cars out of service, SEPTA has been under capacity and running even later than usual. Checking tickets before people get to the platforms gives some relief to conductors, who have been swamped on overcrowded trains and have been unable to keep up with fare collection, SEPTA said.

Almost all of SEPTA's newest train cars were found to have cracks in equalizer beams, a piece that transfers the weight of the car to the axles. SEPTA's been vague about when the cars will return to service. Repairs aren't looking likely, so SEPTA will have to replace the beams on each car. The authority is planning to release more information on the timetable for repairs later this week.