I find the SEPTA Key to be extremely troubling for lower income riders. I'm surprised at how much SEPTA is treating the poor as collateral damage, despite roughly 29% of SEPTA's ridership being below 25k according to the 2018 FY Operating budget. For those that don't know, the federal poverty line is defined as 25k for four person household and 12k for single person household.
What SEPTA has chosen to do is create choices that people don't like, increasing costs while not improving the core of the fare system. Instead, SEPTA should create little freebees then pull the rug out like everyone else normally does.
This leads me to a question I have had for the past two years watching this system develop, What would have been a better way to implement the Key?
A couple of fixes I would like to propose: elimination of the 5 dollar key purchase fee, group discounts for four or more people with a steeper discount for more people capped at 25% like NJ transit, reduced fare for college students, elimination of the on board surcharge, elimination of the transfer fee, automatic discount applied to a train that is in excess of 30 minutes late (well, I can dream), TVM's at higher usage stations outside of Center City i.e. Bryn Mawr/Paoli. Perhaps free interchange between the NHSL and El.
The bus division has eaten a 17% decline in ridership in the past 5 years, so SEPTA can only ignore these problems for so long
The Scheduled 11:30 R5 Local to Malvern Next To Arrive on track 4 Section B