SEPTA 2007 Fare Increase Guide
Regional Rail will see immediate fare increases of about 50 cents for each zone, except for zone 6, which will increase $1. These are prices for advanced ticket sales at ticket offices. On-board fares are about 50 cents to $1.50 higher depending on the zone, and all the fares are whole dollars, so there are no cents involved. This is lower than the $2 on-board surcharge that was added if a ticket office was open, but the on-board fare is charged all the time. I see it as getting rid of all the quarters that had to be carried to make change on board the trains.
SEPTA is also introducing round-trip tickets which cost about 25 cents less for zones up to 5 and $1 less for zone 6 than buying two separate tickets. On-board versions of these tickets will be also in whole dollars.
Regional Rail zones remain the same except that West Trenton is now in zone 6, whereas it used to be in zone 5. (Trenton was already in zone 6.) Route 101 Media is now all one zone, whereas it was two zones before. Route 100 Norristown retains its old zone boundaries. On bus routes, there have been several changes in the zones, with many zone boundaries eliminated.
The Zone 1 TrailPass has been resurrected and is now used for Zone 1 Regional Rail stations, whereas before a city TransPass would have been valid. The off-peak, weekend, and holiday privileges of the TransPass still remain valid.
The prices for the TransPass (city weekly and monthly pass) and TrailPasses (Regional Rail weekly and monthly passes) have increased by about 11%. The old DayPass will be discontinued and replaced with a new 8-trip “Convenience Pass” DayPass. The new DayPass will no longer be valid for a single Regional Rail trip. (The font on the “Convenience Pass” looks like it’s straight out of the 1970s or early 80s.) This pass will not be sold on board buses or other vehicles, but must be bought at a SEPTA sales location. The price also increases from $5.50 to $6.00.
What remains the same is the $2 cash fare and the $1.30 token. I think that the token price should be raised to the same or nearly the same as cash, maybe to $1.75. In San Francisco, the fare is $1.50 for cash or for the rarely found tokens, and it’s valid for 2 hours of free transfers, in contrast to SEPTA’s no transfer policy.
