CAMDEN, NJ (KYW Newsradio) — After months of software delays, PATCO is targeting May 5 to launch fare payment by tapping credit cards and payment apps.
PATCO planned to install new fare validators to accept payments by credit cards and apps such as Apple and Google Pay more than three months ago. But PATCO said extra time was required to resolve software glitches from San Diego-based Cubic Transportation Systems.
“We were having issues with various different cards at different times,” PATCO General Manager John Rink told KYW Newsradio. “It required Cubic to go back in, look at the software, and redeploy new software,” Rink said. “It seemed like every time we did a test to make that one card readable, it created problems for other cards.”
“While it took 3 or 4 months longer than we had hoped, we’re ensuring that once we put it out there, this will work for our customers,” Rink explained.
With the bugs worked out, new fare validators are being installed.
“We are looking at the last week in April for us to start to go and convert one or two gates at each of our stations with the new readers,” Rink said. “By hopefully May 5, midweek of the first week in May… we’ll be able to turn tap-and-go open payments at our fare gates in our stations.”
Seventy percent of PATCO riders currently use its Freedom fare card. Rink said the Freedom card would be supported for the foreseeable future, and Freedom cards would be accepted at all fare gates.
“As we see the convenience of open payment and the options, we expect a lot of our current customers to move to that platform,” Rink said. “Freedom card usage would drop, and then someday in the future, when we see it to a point, you know, that the usage is very low, is when we would consider phasing that out,” Rink said, adding that the Freedom card was necessary for reduced fare and transit benefit programs. PATCO’s Freedom Share cards, which can be used on SEPTA, won’t be compatible with the new fare validators right away, but Rink said they should be by June.
Rink also said new ticket vending machines that dispense disposable plastic tickets should arrive by June. Those machines will give change in paper money, not dollar coins.
PATCO is also planning to add new nearly full-length fare gates in 2027, Rink said.
