Test driving SEPTA's new fare card
Got my new SEPTA Key card today.
So far, so good! I picked mine up about 9:30 a.m. at 15th Street/Dilworth Plaza, and there were four SEPTA ambassadors who had been there since about 6 a.m. helping people navigate the kiosks dispensing the cards. They were great. Really friendly, really patient, and well informed about the system.
By the way, I paid with my debit card. This is HUGE. Until today credit and debit cards were useless in SEPTA stops. This is increasingly a problem in a world where fewer and fewer people carry cash.
They had about 25 to 30 people picking cards up throughout the morning, they said, and by and large everything went smoothly. While I was standing around the station talking to customers (fantastically awkward, by the way, trying to interview people in that setting. They're used to anyone speaking to them being a pan handler so they're automatically on guard) a machine at one point and an error, and one of the ambassadors said earlier in the morning a card seemed to not register on the turnstile scanners, but otherwise customers were finding the purchasing process straightforward and the cards functional. A common question, said one of the ambassadors in a yellow vest, Hunter Smith, was whether the card has a discount for seniors. Not yet, is the answer, though their drivers licenses can be read by the turnstile's swipers.
Another customer, Shirley Thomas, of West Philadelphia, said she isn't a regular transit user, and buying one of the weekly or monthly plans doesn't make sense for her. Eventually, though, SEPTA will institute a "SEPTA Wallet" program that will essentially be a pay as you go model. That'll work for Thomas, who said she's tired of collecting tokens.
"I won't have to run to the store all the time to get tokens!" she said.
In case this is the first you're reading about SEPTA Key, this is an electronic fare card that will allow you to make an account on a debit-card like format to pay for rides on subways, trolleys, buses, the high speed line, and, eventually, Regional Rail. The $220 million system has been long awaited in Philly that still has an adorably quaint token payment system. The promise is that someday soon tokens and other fare cards will be phased out and SEPTA Key, and cash, will be the only tool needed to get on public transportation.
The card works best if you follow this two step process.
Step 1)Tap it against the screen built into the turnstile. It registers almost immediately.
Step 2) Walk through the turnstile.
Yeah, it's pretty intuitive.
My only complaint about the system is the turnstile screen doesn't give you your card balance after every tap. You have to register it online or tap it against one of the kiosks to check your balance.
I was curious what would happen if I tried to use up my 56 rides per week (far more than I would ever use in a week) to get friends on the train. The answer is that I cannot...
I tried again and rotated the turnstile to simulate a passenger getting on the platform, and it still didn't work. So there's that.
I've been getting lots of questions on Twitter about how the system will work so if you've got any questions you'd like to have answered in my story for tomorrow hit me up at @jasmlaughlin and I'll run your questions by SEPTA.
UPDATE: SEPTA's not going to allow multiple riders to use one weekly pass in short order due to the fare structure of those cards. While a weekly pas technically allows a user 56 rides in a week, the average is more like 24 to 28, said SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch. If that was exceeded by a large number of pass holders by getting multiple people through the turnstile with one card it would throw off the revenue estimates SEPTA uses to price the cards. One woman on Twitter asked about parents who might need to get children through the turnstile with their card. One SEPTA Wallet debuts, the Key card will allow more flexible payments that don't lock users into a weekly or monthly plan. If users set up a SEPTA Wallet plan, they would be able to pay for multiple rides in quick succession.