Head-end View wrote:SouthernRailway, my apologies for flaming you. I was just totally surprised by your confusion at having to buy a ticket at a ticket window. I'm guessing you're much younger than I am, and you've grown up in a world of new technology. I'm a retiree and I like the best of both the new and the old ways. Though I like TVM's, I have no need to buy a ticket on a smart-phone. I remember telephones with dials and pay-phone booths too.
One other thing I just have to ask you. Are you one of those customers at Starbucks who actually uses a smart-phone app or a credit card to buy a $2.00 cup of coffee instead of just paying cash? Sorry, I just had to ask you that. (Chuckle!)
BTW, if you think SEPTA is bad, you should see Boston's MBTA where they don't even have ticket windows or TVM's at many commuter-rail stations and you buy your ticket at the candy store down the street. I'm not kidding! That's totally antiquated! Also in the NYC Subway, you can still buy your Metrocard at the "token booth", though PATH stations only have TVM's, no ticket agents. MTA's Penn and Grand Central Stations have TVM's and conventional staffed ticket windows, which both serve their purpose.
And SemperFidelis, 1950's, 60's and 70's rock-and-roll is where it's at good buddy. Always was and always will be for me anyway! LOL
Apologies accepted, and no worries. To respond:
Yes, I do use a Starbucks card to buy a $2.00 cup of coffee instead of paying cash. Doing it with a Starbucks card (or app) gets rewards program benefits: free refills, free items after every few purchases, free add-ons to drinks, etc. Why would you give all that up in order to pay cash? Similarly, I pay for everything else that I can with a credit card, since it generates frequent flyer miles (and elite status on the airline that I fly). Why give that up?
Unfortunately most NYC Transit subway stations don't sell Metrocards except through kiosks (which take cash and credit cards).
Finally, SEPTA should realize a lot of people have pre-tax transit programs--meaning that they deduct some of their salary, on a pre-tax basis, and can use that to buy mass transit tickets. To buy the tickets, you have to either use the program provider's debit card or submit a receipt to the provider for reimbursement. Cash with no receipt doesn't work. I save about 30% or whatever my tax rate is by taking part in a pre-tax transit program, and I'd be thus penalized by almost 50% of the fare if I paid cash. That's a raw deal.