One of the nation's largest transit systems doesn't even have ticket vending machines? That sounds like a punch line to a bad joke.
Well, SEPTA officials need to stop acting as though they're preparing material for a Comedy Central appearance. Rather than crack wise, they need to get cracking on implementing a rider-friendly ticketing system for all riders.
SEPTA officials are out of reasonable excuses on ticketing and many other deferred improvements riders want to see on their buses, trains and subways and at stations.
A decision Thursday by the SEPTA board headed by chairman Pasquale T. "Pat" Deon Sr. paved the way for two additional fare increases covering bus and subway tokens and transfers. That means the agency can expect additional revenue, plus the infusion of substantial state aid.
For years, transit officials have blamed their perennial fiscal struggles for delaying the agency's transition to a new electronic fare-collection system. No more.
It's time for Deon and his fellow political appointees to make a modernized fare system a top priority. This should be a key test of SEPTA general manager Faye Moore's leadership, as well.
In many major cities, transit systems have switched from paper transfers and coin tokens to so-called smart cards. Riders conveniently purchase them at vending machines, and the transit agencies get out of the cumbersome and costly business of handling cash on most vehicles.
SEPTA's popular prepaid weekly and monthly passes work for regular riders. But others rightly complain of difficulty buying tickets and tokens outside Center City. A new on-board surcharge for rail riders whose only option for that trip is to get a ticket from a conductor compounds the slight.
Subway riders, at least, can buy tokens at a limited number of machines at busier stations. But the rail machines that, for some years, made life easier are out of service. In another bad comedy turn - D'oh! - the machines were shut down because they couldn't handle new U.S. currency.
Credit the fuss over SEPTA's earlier proposal to scrap paper transfers with one good outcome: It turned up the heat on SEPTA over modernizing fares. Now the better-funded transit agency must get it done sooner, not later.