SEPTA Regional Rail paper Trailpasses will disappear starting in August
SEPTA is phasing out its paper monthly and weekly Trailpasses. All passes will be sold as Key card purchases starting in August. Click for details.
This article originally appeared on PlanPhilly.
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The final swipes have come for the 40,000 SEPTA Key card that will go dead on July 31.
If you were one of the 39,386 early adopters who picked up a newborn card three years ago and haven’t already spent or moved your balance, this is the time to call the SEPTA Key magicians at Conduent (855-567-3782). Ask to transfer your balance over to a fresh card before the credit vanishes.
But old Key cards aren’t the only SEPTA passes passing into obsolescence.
Now that weekly and monthly passses work on the Key card for all four Regional Rail zones, SEPTA is phasing out its paper monthly and weekly trailpasses. SEPTA will convert all TrailPasses to Key card purchases over the next few months.
Per SEPTA, the TrailPass phase-out will proceed as follows:
- Weekly Zones 3 and 4: Monday, August 12
- Weekly Zones 1 and 2: Monday, Sept. 9
- Monthly Zones 3 and 4 TrailPasses will convert to Key-only beginning with the October Monthly pass ( The passes will be available on Key for purchase starting Sept. 20)
- Monthly Zones 1 and 2 TrailPasses convert to Key with the November Monthly pass (Passes available for purchase on Key starting Oct. 20)
The One-Day Independence Pass will also change this fall. As of Sept. 3, there will be no on-board purchases of the 24-hour pass. Customers can continue to purchase paper Independence Passes at Regional Rail sales offices, or load them onto Key cards.
The beginning of the end for Trailpasses came toward the end of April when the authority began selling monthly passes on the Key card.
The transition to the Key card on all four zones allows customers to load their passes online or via the phone, instead of waiting in line to purchase the paper pass.
SEPTA expects the travel wallet function, which would allow riders to buy a single fare on the Key card, to work with Regional Rail by the end of 2019. It’s “the last piece,” said Andrew Busch, a spokesman.
The agency is also working on a process for customers to pay for parking at Regional Rail stations with the Key card. That’s expected in 2020.
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