(The following story by Dan Hirschhorn appeared on The Bulletin website on December 3.)
PHILADELPHIA — SEPTA officials announced Thursday the earliest stages of a plan to modernize the transit agency’s fare collection system, something long called for by riders and city government.
SEPTA’s fare system is notoriously outdated. A state judge last month called it the “most antiquated fare collection system in the country.”
During a briefing for reporters, SEPTA officials said new funding secured this summer through transportation legislation in Harrisburg would allow the historically cash strapped agency to finally move ahead with fare modernization.
“Since we had no money over the last 10, 15 years, it’s been a little hard to implement a new plan without any cash to do it,” said Pasquale Deon, chairman of SEPTA’s board of directors.
Much about the new system remains unclear.
SEPTA did not provide a detailed timeline for completing implementation of a new fare system, saying it was impossible to predict how long it would take at this early stage. Instead, officials said they would spend the next year collecting proposals from companies to install the system, with plans to award a contract by the last quarter of next 2008. After that, a more detailed timeline could be developed.
“This is a major undertaking,” general manager Faye Moore said, contrasting SEPTA’s vast, multi-modal transit network with other transit systems throughout the country.
“Our timeline here is very aggressive,” she added.
SEPTA is certainly far behind transit agencies around the country when it comes to fare modernization. New York, Chicago, Washington, Atlanta and Boston are just a few of the cities with fully installed, modern fare collection systems. Most of those took years to implement. Even PATCO, the rail line running between Southern New Jersey and Center City Philadelphia, launched a modern fare collection system this month.
“We’re really prisoners of the existing fare system,” said Jerry Kane, who will be managing SEPTA’s fare modernization project.
With SEPTA’s plans at the earliest stages, it’s difficult to predict exactly what the new fare collection system will look like. Officials said a combination of magnetic swipe cards and more advanced cards with computer chips would be likely. Meanwhile, old fare collection boxes will remain in use at least until a modern fare system is completely implemented.
If the transit agency does use cards with embedded computer chips, the direction in which much of the industry is moving, those cards could be easily used in conjunction with a credit or debit card. The advanced cards, often called Smart Cards, would communicate with a data storage system complete with information about account balances and fare discounts. That would require significant investment in information technology infrastructure.
“Money is no longer money anymore – it’s data,” Mr. Kane said.