The Travelin’ Grampa Touring the U.S.A. without an automobile Focus on fast, safe, convenient, comfortable, cheap travel, via public transit. Vol. 8, No. 3, March 2015 Illustration credit: Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority Philadelphia’s transit system calls its new electronic ‘smart’ farecard a Key Card, reportedly reminiscent of Benjamin Franklin’s flying a kite with a key attached to catch a bolt of lightning in June 1752. Philly-area seniors will get new ‘free ride’ ID cards Yellow and blue paper ID cards Philadelphia-area seniors currently use to ride transit buses and trolleys, aka streetcars, without paying a fare will be phased out as Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority switches to plastic electronic farecards. SEPTA will eliminate metal tokens, and paper passes, tickets and transfers. In the future, to ride without paying on SEPTA fixed-route transit buses, or to pay a sharply discounted $1 fare on its regional commuter railroad trains, seniors ages 65 & 65+ will be able to use their driver’s license or non-driver photo ID from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Or, they can use a special new photo-ID card to be provided by SEPTA. A photo-ID card issued by the state costs $27.50. It expires in four years. You swipe it at bus and trolley fareboxes and rail station turnstiles. A photo-ID farecard issued by SEPTA will cost zero and expire in four years. You tap this on card readers attached to bus/trolley fareboxes and at rail station turnstiles. SEPTA calls this a “Validator” and its new farecard a “Key Card.” On the back of the state-issued driver’s licenses and non-driver ID cards is a magnetic stripe and bar codes. These contain the same information printed on the front. Rides not free; Pennsylvania Lottery pays senior fares As do other mass transit systems across the state, SEPTA currently issues senior ID cards as agent for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which pays the transit systems for each senior ride. So, they are not, strictly speaking, free rides, contrary to what many seniors suppose. Money from the Pennsylvania Lottery funds this “seniors ride free” program. SEPTA Regional Rail senior fares won’t change? “Fares for seniors … will not be changing, just the cards they use,” says SEPTA. Seniors now pay $1 per SEPTA regional railroad train ride. Or buy a strip of ten one-ride tickets for $8.50. But there will be no tickets? Huh! Wha? For more info: http://www.septa.org/key/faq.html 1 . SPECIAL REPORT: SEPTA’s NEW FARECARDS . Visiting with grandkids? Buy a SEPTA family daypass Smart visitors to Philadelphia and other infrequent riders buy one-day passes. Called an Independence Pass, this costs $12 and provides one-day of unlimited rides on transit buses, trolleys, subways, high-speed light rail line, and SEPTA Regional Railroad trains. These are calendar daypasses, not 24-hour passes. For a visiting senior traveling with 3 or 4 grandkids, a Family Independence Pass at $29 is a real bargain. This allows a family of up to five members traveling together unlimited rides on its transit buses, trolleys, subways, and regional railroad trains. During the summer, it also provides free rides to/from the popular Mann Center for performing arts. The five family member limit doesn’t include babes in arms and two children age 4 or under, who travel free of charge. Full fare is charged for each additional kid no matter what the age. NOTICE: In Delaware, these passes are available for $12 and $29 at Amtrak/SEPTA railroad stations in Wilmington and Newark, and at Darley Pharmacy near Claymont station. Here's the fine print regarding SEPTA one-day passes Though the Family Independence Pass is $29 for a family of up to five traveling together, only two can be age 18 or older. ● If you and the kids travel from or to New Jersey on a SEPTA Regional Rail train, you must pay $15 additional each way. ● One-day passes aren’t valid on regional railroad trains arriving Center City Philadelphia weekdays before 9:30 am, except Airport Line trains, where they are valid any time. ● A one-day pass for an individual can be issued by a conductor on a regional railroad train for $12. However, the conductor gives you only a cash sales receipt. This must be taken to a Center City Ticket Office to exchange for an actual Family Independence one-day pass. ● Market-Frankford and Broad Street line trains are not regional railroad trains. Key Card one-day family pass will be here soon On a SEPTA Key Card the Family Independence Pass will provide exactly what it does in paper form today. One family of up to five members traveling together – one of the five, but no more than two, must be 18 years of age or older – will be able to use it for one day unlimited travel on SEPTA transit vehicles and railroad trains. NOTICE: This pass will be available only at SEPTA sales outlets. It won’t be dispensed at Fare Kiosks, aka vending machines. NOTICE: Key Cards okay in 2015 for travel on transit buses, trolleys, subways, high speed light rail, etc., but not until 2016 on SEPTA regional railroad trains. If your 2015 travel includes a SEPTA railroad, buy a paper Family Independence Pass. Paper pass gets hole punched; new Key Card won’t Currently, SEPTA one-day weekly and monthly passes are punched by a bus driver, trolley car operator, subway booth attendant, or railroad train conductor to indicate day, week or month they are good for travel. After that, the rider merely shows this pass for each subsequent trip. After SEPTA switches to new “smart” farecards, no more hole punching will be done. Passes will be electronically recorded onto the “smart” Key Card farecards. In fact, SEPTA warns that punching a hole in these new cards can destroy their usefulness. Visitors can buy one-day paper passes at: SEPTA HQ at 1234 Market Street, railroad ticket windows, Independence Visitor Center at 6th & Market Sts., and online at shop.septa.org 2 . SPECIAL REPORT: SEPTA’s NEW FARECARDS . Lustrations credit: DMV, Penna. Dept. of Transportation; © Washington State Dept. of Licensing; PennDOT. Magnetic stripe and bar codes on the back of Pennsylvania driver licenses and PennDOT-issued ID cards basically contain the same personal information that’s on their front. PennDOT-issued cards will act as a SEPTA farecard Instead of getting a new SEPTA Senior Key Card, seniors who have a Pennsylvania driver’s license or non-driver photo-ID card will be able to swipe it at a bus farebox or rail station turnstile to ride without paying. Driver’s licenses and photo-IDs from other states won’t be acceptable, however. A magnetic stripe on the back of Pennsylvania’s cards contains name and date of birth of the senior doing the card swiping. NOTICE: Most public transit in the state will continue using blue and yellow non-photo IDs pictured at the bottom of this page. If you have one, keep it, for use outside the Philly area. Visiting seniors can get new Key Card ‘free’ rides card Out-of-towners age 65 and above now can show a Medicare Card to ride without paying on SEPTA transit buses, trolleys, trackless trolleys, subway-el and high-speed light rail lines. Or they can show a Senior Citizen Lottery Funded Transit non-photo ID card they can apply for and get within minutes. Females get a yellow-color paper ID card. Males get a blue color paper ID card. The Pennsylvania Lottery pays their fares. After introduction of new Key Card “smart” farecards, they won’t be able to do this, especially at non-attended transit boarding areas. Instead, these seniors, including non-residents, will be able to get a new Key Card photo-ID farecard that will allow riding on buses, subways, etc., without paying a fare. SEPTA keeping existing fare boxes on buses, trolleys. Adding its new Validator card reader to bus fareboxes rather than replacing the fareboxes is “a more efficient way to integrate the new fare program without inconveniencing customers,” SEPTA says. It lets riders keep using the farebox’s swipe reader and coin/bill slots during the transition from the old to the new fare payment system, for instance. Seniors age 65&+ ride on public mass transit in Pennsylvania without paying by showing one of these. The Pennsylvania Lottery pays their fares. SEPTA will stop issuing the blue and yellow ID cards as it introduces new photo-ID farecards for seniors. Other public transit systems in Pennsylvania will continuing using the paper blue and yellow IDs, including those in tourist-attractive Harrisburg, Erie, and Pittsburgh. 3 . SPECIAL REPORT: SEPTA’s NEW FARECARDS . Philly’s nicest subway trains go to/from New Jersey Philadelphia’s nicest subway trains are those of Port Authority Transit Corp.’s high speed railway linking the Quaker City and several of its New Jersey suburbs. Seniors using a photo-ID PATCO Senior Freedom farecard can travel between any of these for 70¢ per ride, weekdays during off-peak hours, and 70¢ all day Saturday and Sunday. During peak hours, seniors pay full fare, which varies depending on distance traveled. One-way fare ranges from $1.40 to $3. PATCO is a subsidiary of the Delaware River Port Authority. DRPA has four bridges that span the Delaware River between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. SEPTA-PATCO joint fare will continue SEPTA says it is working with PATCO to ensure that riders now paying one fare for travel between Philadelphia and New Jersey stations will be able to continue doing so after introduction of SEPTA's new fare collection system.