PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — SEPTA activated a long-awaited feature Friday, expanding so-called "contactless" payments to Regional Rail. The move allows riders on all modes of SEPTA transit to pay fares with credit cards or phone apps.
"With this expansion to Regional Rail, SEPTA is the first commuter rail network in the country to accept contactless payments," SEPTA interim General Manager Scott Sauer told reporters.
Since September 2023, bus, subway and trolley riders have been able to pay fares by tapping their credit or debit cards or their phones or watches with Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay.
"We had intended to do this [expand to Regional Rail] in 2024. It took a little bit longer than we had intended," Sauer said, adding that extra testing was necessary to ensure the system would be reliable. "Customers expect that it's going to work and it's going to work every time," he said.
Sauer and SEPTA officials demonstrated the new tap-and-go function at the turnstiles at Jefferson Station.
The non-SEPTA payment modes charge the SEPTA Travel Wallet fares. Daily rail commuters, though, will still want to use a Key Card, Sauer said. "Certainly there's a discount for buying your rides in advance. So if you're buying a monthly pass or a weekly pass, there's a discount associated with that."
Sauer says about 15% of SEPTA transit commuters currently use methods other than a SEPTA Key Card to pay their fares.
SEPTA's Regional Rail riders to and from the Trenton and West Trenton stations can't use the newly added payment forms yet, because platform validators still need to be installed at those stations.