PhilaMike wrote:Just let them tap out on board.
IIRC there's a similar system in Amsterdam, with a validator on each vehicle.
NHSL riders are used to tapping out anyway, it's been pay on exit as long as I can remember for outbound trips.
That practice actually dates back to the Phila & Western days. Because the cars sit open at 69th Street, fares were always paid at the "external" station where boardings/exitings can be controlled. PAYE / PAYL continued into the Red Arrow days. After SEPTA took over they spent years futzing with a hybrid "gateway" transfer system before allowing standard transfers between the Suburban and City divisions. The stumbling block is that there's no way for someone boarding on a city line (e.g. the El) to pay for their zones in advance. SEPTA's half-solution is to retain the P&W's PAYE / PAYL policies for zone charges but require that base fares always be paid on boarding. The result is the oddball split fare payment that you're referring to - yet another source of confusion for riders who aren't long-term citizens of SEPTAland.
What I really don't understand is why the NHSL gets hit with a surcharge, when all but one other Victory buses had all their farezones reduced to just a token. If they consider it a premium service for the suburbs, shouldn't the Media and Sharon Hill trolleys be paying more too?
SEPTA is like the Red Queen in
Alice in Wonderland. "Premium service" means whatever SEPTA wants it to mean - so long as it means more money out of the riders' pockets.
Requiem for it's/its, your/you're, than/then, less/fewer. They were once such nice words with such different meanings...