SEPTA Key Explained: How New Transit Fare Card Works, Glitches and All | NBC10 Philadelphia

The SEPTA Key fare technology has taken a decade to arrive. It's taken more than a year to implement. Glitches persist, and so do riders' questions about how it works. NBC10 Investigators reporter Matt DeLucia visits SEPTA's "lab" for Key testing, and found out why his own Key card doesn't work.
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[@Westphillybul]

2 dollar swipes 2dollar swipes 😭😭😭

[@zeke7035]

LMFAO

[@harrowgateguy]

They neglected to say that if you use the card on one of the regional lines you must find a reader at the destination station and have it read again if you forget to do that septa will charge you the maximum price even if you are only going to another station within that zone. As far as just going to the cashier if you have a problem with the card good luck finding a station that still has cashiers.

[@nc3826]

Wrong.... Since it wasn't implemented on regional rail lines yet...

[@harrowgateguy]

@@nc3826 the key cards have been used on the regional rail lines since 2019

[@shawnsanders4056]

These cards and readers are a pain in a behind. They only work half the time. You go to the sales window, they say its fine and want to charge you for a replacement card.

[@vettyclarke1536]

They are horrible. I put money on a card and it won't work. I broughtt a card in London 10 years ago went there last year and it worked.

[@orangekangrufrmdnmrk]

I haven’t taken septa in years, my car is in the shop and will be taking septa tomorrow so I’m watching this video after purchasing a septa keycard Lol

[@Westphillybul]

Back door dh 😭

[@trendsettatrilla3912]

😭😭

[@stschannelt1476]

Ptsd 😂

[@nichettucker8972]

Still haven't gotten refund. It's been 9 months. The card shouldn't expire if you register it. Like DC and London.

[@awordperiodradio4067]

When it 1st came out i had issues but not now even when i lost mine they cut a check always register the card i always keep my receipt when i purchase

[@louischristopher7116]

Seems to be more trouble than it is worth. Having the tickets was so much simpler. Just buy the ticket and board the train. Whenever SEPTA makes a change , it's usually not for the better.

[@AutZentus]

Yeah, me and my friends have gone to philly quite a few times and when I heard that paper tickets and independent passes are being discontinued for this key card thing I started to feel unsure about future journeys to philly. Most of the when I go to philly I mostly gone for the wizard world convention. But now if this key card thing now I don't want to go to philly. This is an unnecessary push and it was likely done because of COVID and it pisses me off.

[@fauxre]

@@AutZentus Nope, they've been trying to do this for years. The kiosks have been there. They just failed to implement it w/ regional rail. They recently finally are accepting it on regional rail. They have dragged their feet on this for literal years, so no, it's not about covid.

[@eamonmahoney9466]

@@AutZentus if you're an occasional regional rail rider, when traveling to center city without the Key Card, you have to go to the exit kiosk and buy an exit quick trip to swipe it to exit through the turnstiles. When coming from center city, you buy a quick trip at the kiosk to access the turnstiles. When purchasing a quick trip it will ask you what zone you're going to. Not everyone is going to know the fare zone they are traveling to, so there is a button, "Help define zone". Push that button and find the train station you will be traveling to from center city. When the kiosk dispenses the quick trip, you swipe it at the turnstile and hopefully you're in. Hold on to the quick trip in case the conductor wants to see your quick trip when you board the the train. I agree, it is a pain in the butt to regional rail riders, especially for riders returning to riding SEPTA after staying off for so long because of covid.

[@eamonmahoney9466]

The way the key card works on regional rail is bewildering to occasional regional rail riders. Especially to occasional riders who were so used to paying cash to the conductors. Now, occasional riders going to and from center city have to use the fare kiosks to buy a quick trip to access or exit the turnstiles at the regional rail stations in center city

[@annlupica6948]

@@eamonmahoney9466 The system does work but the conductors don't validate the fares with their scanners once passengers are on board. They walk the aisle, see the keycard and keep going. When I complained (and continue to complain) SEPTA Cust. Service tells me, and I quote "conductors often recognize their regular passengers so there's no need to check the card". Really? Just because they have a card doesn't mean there's money on it. You're also supposed to tap out (e.g. center city to Wister) to "complete the fare" but those tap outs don't reflect on your trip history records. Then there are then turnstile jumpers on the subway ... can't arrest them though because of COVID, so I'm told.

[@lindadivon8500]

😍: HORRIBLE!!

[@JasonFiske]

Asinine solution. Get a mobile App. Could not catch a train yesterday because this doesn’t work.

[@yongshan7391]

How about Apple Pay? Transit? New York has Apple Pay transit.

[@samuelbennie7690]

Yong Han Sometime in spring SEPTA says.

[@bigspyty3560]

Bro it’s Philly

[@aureapadilla6904]

They always take our money. And they cancel the cards and don't tell you. Bad service that's SEPTA.

[@Poisson4147]

Systematically Eliminating Public Transit Altogether

[@TransitAndTeslas]

This is an embarrassing rollout. LMAO. Successful rollout? NY OMNY, LA TAP, Portland HOP, London Oyster, Paris NAVIGO, etc. SEPTA key is a joke compared to those other ones.

[@youminholastransit3218]

It’s embarrassing. Imagine tourists visiting Philly? They’ll be so confused. Just look at the data. Ridership is slowly decreasing because of this. I don’t know what railroad uses “key cards” what a joke

[@TransitAndTeslas]

@@youminholastransit3218 Two major transit systems use “key cards”…Melbourne Australia has “MyKi” pronounced my key. And Indianapolis has “MyKey”

[@aureapadilla6904]

@@youminholastransit3218 I said the samething

[@mr.noprobz3412]

These things are so cheap! A pain in the ass, and SEPTA shoulda never switched. No need....

[@Poisson4147]

A lot of us who are transit advocates warned them repeatedly that the Key would be a giant C-F. But their management is so caught up with "not invented here" that they charged ahead with a home-brew system that violated all sorts of good systems design principles. I was told by one of the planners there was an almost palpable fear that any new system would bring in less revenue than the legacy system. So ... instead of starting with a clean slate they tried to build a digital replica of the prior fare structure, parts of which dated back to the *1920s.* The problem was that the legacy structure had accumulated so many exceptions, special cases, and "gotchas" that it couldn't rationally be automated. Result - a continuation of the punitive transfer policies (only now being addressed), the whole RRD tap-on, tap-off nightmare, the loss of suburban transit zones, and so on. Conduent went over budget by >100% and was years late, and now a lot of the system has to be scrapped.

[@timmyasikin3953]

They charge me 3.75 $ twice....for the machine problem. It is a septa scam !

[@aureapadilla6904]

Yes it is,,,

[@youminholastransit3218]

I need to ride septa once. I have to buy basically a SEPTA credit card for a one time ride? Ridiculous

[@nicojordan3542]

18th floor 😮

[@xuetingfuyu7062]

🧐ITS BEING DUMPED!!!! THIS IS NEW NEWS!!!!

[@nc3826]

FAKE NEW NEWS!!!!

[@billdonofrio7995]

tiny crack it is useless