SEPTA NPT card will be "SEPTA Key"?

One free transfer! Move more people onto the subways. They move more people at higher speed and don't clog street traffic. I would even encourage Septa to alter the bus routes to reduce bus congestion on CC streets.

Will a second (paid) transfer be available?

What they do in New York, and I believe most places where this is in effective, is allow unlimited transfers within a stated time period (2 hours in New York). If you can board a bus, transfer to the subway, and board another bus, all within 2 hours, one fare covers it. (But how do we know whether it would work in Philadelphia?)

Correct me if i'm wrong, but doesn't NYC only allow one transfer

Everyone:

New York City Transit allows ONE free transfer with the Metrocard for a elapsed time of two hours and
16 minutes from the time of entry to a Subway station or boarding a bus...A transfer is valid from Subway
to Bus; Bus to Subway or on another Bus route on pay-per-ride cards containing a monetary balance...

When you pay a cash fare on a Bus you can ask for a Metrocard paper bus transfer on which the bus route
and time received will be printed right on it to be used on the next bus you transfer to - the advantage with
this option is knowing exactly how much time that you have to work with when you transfer as compared to
having to remember yourself or checking the card reader before you enter the system on which reads the
exact time that the system uses when you enter the Subway with a pay-per-ride Metrocard...

On Nassau Inter County Express buses - which use the MTA Metrocard system as well - they allow TWO
transfers between vehicles in that same 2 hour 16 minute time frame - and when you pay with cash they
allow riders to ask for and get a additional transfer free when a valid transfer is collected on your second
or third ride...In this case each paper transfer is good for a additional 2:16 and opens up options...NYCT
Bus drivers in comparison issue a paper transfer for a additional bus ride only on upon payment of a
cash fare...

SEPTA should allow at least one free transfer on the Key system within a period of two hours and allow a
option to pay for a second transfer - the $1 fee could apply here - and probably will not offer a unlimited option
for a two hour transfer because they feel it can be abused by some riders - the majority of multiple vehicle
riders would be using these transfer options not because they want to - they have to...

MACTRAXX

When NPT is done, how will riders from the Amtrak Keystone trains coming from Lancaster transfer to SEPTA trains to Suburban Station?

There has been some previous discussion of that (and other such situations--the same would apply to anyone coming from Washington or New York), and I believe the planners are still mulling it over ...

bikentransit wrote:When NPT is done, how will riders from the Amtrak Keystone trains coming from Lancaster transfer to SEPTA trains to Suburban Station?

I know that questions were raised about the NPT readers accepting drivers licenses from other states for validating age for senior citizens. I assumed this would be no problem as every states ID has a barcode that uses universal data. I verified by scanned 22 different state drivers licenses using my phone with a free app and every one displayed the name of the person and age - so my assumption is now based on "if" SEPTA's system being able to read barcodes. If they do, I would hope that SEPTA's system could also be set up to recognize and read Amtrak's barcode. Considering that this is SEPTA and this may not be possible, I would then assume that Amtrak passengers who want to travel to the SS would have to go old school and stop by the SEPTA ticket window to get credit. Obviously this would only work when the ticket office is open.

Reading the barcode is the easy part -- as you said, you have a free app on your phone that can do that. The hard part is accessing the validation information from Amtrak, and [thinking like a SEPTA NPT planner] making sure Amtrak Rider I doesn't give his cancelled ticket to someone else to use as soon as they get off the train.

Didn't SEPTA want to get away from bar codes? Otherwise, they could have used bar code tickets instead of this silly NPT concept, which still remains to be seen.

An update

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150 ... n_way.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The article is about the installation of more gates. I guess the big question still remains open...........

When the new cards will be widely available is not clear, Williams said.

NPT kiosk is installed at 40th.

I heard a while ago through the grapevine that training for KEY starts in November. Maybe we will get a end of the year roll-out. I wonder what are the plans for the Railroad Division. I think most of the subway stops on the BSL (North) has them. Except for Spring Garden, Not sure about Erie , Race-Vine, North Philly....and The EL (Frankford Side) not sure about West Philly side....but i will say the gates are starting to pop up in a unexpected fashionably time frame.

The new gate at 40th St on the MFL ?

sammy2009 wrote:

The new gate at 40th St on the MFL ?

I didn't get a super good look at it, but it's on the inbound side and looks like a metrocard machine.

New news about SEPTA Key
http://6abc.com/traffic/septa-cards-to- ... s/1041048/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The way that hundreds of thousands of SEPTA customers pay for their ride is about to change.

The transit agency unveiled its "SEPTA Key" program, which will eventually replace tokens, cash and passes.

It will be used system-wide.

With older systems the money information is on the mag stripe. Just like cash: if you lose it, it's gone.

With SEPTA Key, the money information stays in a computer.

But, there have been some glitches.

"Some equipment has had trouble passing the reliability tests, I think they have a fix that now," said SEPTA GM Jeff Knuepel.

The hope is to move from the testing phase to customer use starting late this year or early next year.

It will be a slow rollout, says the man overseeing SEPTA Key.

"We're going to start out small scale and build over time to reduce the risk for the customers so they don't get disappointed," said Kevin O'Brien of SEPTA.

This is a program years in the making at a cost of $134 million.