SEPTA's week of highs - and lows

SEPTA officials are expecting about 22,000 fewer daily riders aboard trains, trolleys and buses this week, the anticipated fallout of the agency's first fare increase since 2001.

That would amount to about a 2.6 percent ridership drop, SEPTA spokesman Felipe Suarez said.

Fare hikes averaging 11 percent begin to take effect tomorrow.

Those increases alone, however, will not cure SEPTA's chronically ailing finances. They will cover only about one-third of its operating budget's shortfall.

A second round of fare hikes - averaging 24 percent - is set for Sept. 2 if state lawmakers fail to come up with at least $100 million in additional annual funding for SEPTA.

As of Friday, they had not done so. Gov. Rendell's standoff with legislators continued, with Rendell refusing to approve a state budget unless transit funding and other measures were addressed.

For the time being, monthly, weekly and day passes are all going up in price.

And starting next month, city TransPass holders no longer will be able to use them on Zone 1 Regional Rail trains during peak hours. They will have to switch to a Zone 1 weekly or monthly TrailPass, costing about 20 percent more.

SEPTA's $2 cash fare for subway, bus and trolley riders won't change, and tokens still will cost $1.30. But riders will take a big hit Aug. 1, when transfers are eliminated, forcing them to pay a second fare for a connecting bus.

For suburban riders, one of the least-popular changes is a surcharge on tickets bought onboard a train regardless of whether tickets were available at the boarding station. Currently, riders aren't charged extra unless they could have bought tickets at the station.

After SEPTA's last increase - an 11 percent overall hike that shot up the base fare by 25 percent - about 15,000 riders dropped away, Suarez said.

That 2.1 percent ridership loss took two years to regain, but Suarez said this year's dropoff may be more quickly reversed.

In 2001, the Sept. 11 terror attacks chased even more riders off the trains and slowed the return of others, Suarez said. Plus, high gas costs and the escalating price of parking in the city could help coax disgruntled riders back onto SEPTA faster, he said.

SEPTA's customer-service phone lines have been busy, Suarez said, but not so much with complaints about the increase. Most callers have been trying to wade through a new fee schedule with enough wrinkles to confuse.

"They have been exactly the type of calls you would expect," Suarez said.

Details of SEPTA's changes are posted at www.septa.org/fares/

July2007/index.htm. Questions can also be answered by calling SEPTA's customer service line at 215-580-7800.

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A graphic gives highlights of SEPTA's new procedures and fares. B8.EndText