No SEPTA fare hike this year
ListenSEPTA riders had some good news this week. Fares are staying where they are — at least for another year.
The transit agency decided not to increase fares this year because of the pending implementation of a new electronic fare-collection system known as SEPTA Key, said general manager Jeff Knueppel.
“With that starting up, it was going to make things confusing,” he said. “So we decided to forgo the increase for a while.”
The first round of stress testing for SEPTA key is just days away.
“We have the early adopter launch set for June 13. We want to start out slowly and pick up steam,” Knueppel said. “These launches are tough to do.”
If all goes well the city transit division — including subways, trolleys and buses — could have electric fare collection in place by the beginning of 2017. The suburban and regional rail portions of the system would follow suit sometime after that.
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