PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Riders know that the SEPTA Key fare card system isn’t always reliable. Last summer, for example, multiple glitches prevented riders from adding value to their cards.
The SEPTA Board has decided to remedy the matter by hiring a new company to run its fare card system.
Scott Sauer, SEPTA interim general manager, said the current system under the firm Conduent has been in use for more than a decade, and it’s showing its age.
“We’ve had about 30 different failures, a variety of issues that we’ve seen over the last 18 months,” he said, “and those are all indications of failure — of impending failure.”
The board on Thursday approved spending $211 million over 12 years with Cubic Transportation Systems, of San Diego, to design a new fare collection system, dubbed SEPTA Key 2.0.
Sauer said while engineering work will be going on, riders won’t see any changes until 2027. The entire overhaul is expected to finish in 2029.