Candis R. McLean
In an era where the only coins being spoken about are crypto, the extinction of SEPTA tokens is long overdue. For years, and in some cities decades, fee for passage on mass transit has been completed with a simple swipe. The harbinger of this fateful day of progression has been brewing for quite some time. Over the past two years, you may have seen various SEPTA passes machines popping up in several stations. Last year, the rail service introduced SEPTA Key passes to the public. In December, SEPTA announced the overhauling phase out of tokens and the full acclimation to SEPTA Key passes.
SEPTA token machines will be fully removed from stations and cashiers will no longer sell the once priority coin. This full embrace of modern transportation servicing and payment is something city dwellers can look forward to. You’ll no longer have to wait in long sales lines or deal with broken machines. You can reload your card and inquire about your balance in seconds online.
For more information about the SEPTA Key, including a detailed FAQ that is continually updated with new questions from customers, click here. For customers who still need to register their SEPTA Key click here or call (855) 567-3782 .
You can follow Candis McLean on Twitter (@CandisRMcLean) and e-mail her at [email protected]. Follow Philly Influencer on Twitter (@PHL_Influencer), Facebook and Instagram.
Unsurprisingly, SEPTA’s FAQ page has no information about how long any outstanding tokens will be accepted for payment, or how/whether refunds will be issued for people who can’t convert them to a paid Key card (e.g. seniors, disabled, etc.)
SEPTA needs to remember what happened when Chicago’s CTA arbitrarily tried to declare its old tokens null and void before most of them were redeemed. They had a PR disaster on their hands and had to backtrack.
I’m going to reach out SEPTA and see if I can get a clear answer for you.
Thank you, Candis. As someone with a lot of IT-project experience and a lifelong interest in transit issues I’ve been very frustrated by how SEPTA’s handled many aspects of the Key. In my professional opinion both its design and rollout could have, and should have, been handled with more transparency and organization.