(The following story appeared on the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader website on July 31.)
PHILADELPHIA — The city requested a court order barring the region’s largest transit agency from eliminating bus and subway transfers, the mayor’s office announced.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has said 60-cent transfers will no longer be accepted as of Wednesday, the same day SEPTA extends new price breaks to senior citizens.
Without transfers, a person paying cash would have to pay a full $2 fare each time he or she boards a bus or trolley or enters the subway. Those using tokens would need a new $1.30 token for each leg of the trip.
The decision to eliminate transfers was announced along with an increase in the cost of weekly and monthly passes.
Mayor John F. Street asked SEPTA to reconsider, but the board declined. The mayor said eliminating transfers would have a disproportionate impact on the city’s poor and on high school students, many of whom depend on SEPTA to get to class.
SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said late Monday his agency had not been served with court papers nor had the city been in touch with his agency’s legal department.
The regional transit agency said senior citizens’ discounts would be expanded on Wednesday.
Riders 65 and up currently ride for $1 on regional rail trains and free on buses and subways, except from 7 to 8 a.m. and 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on weekdays, when they must pay full fare. Under the transit bill passed this month, state Lottery funds are being used to eliminate the peak-hour full-fare periods for the senior riders.