[PRCo] Re: [PRCo]End of a Street car line?

[Joshua Dunfield]

On 2008-08-07, John Swindler <j_swindler at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>  You had to pay the surcharge, Fred????
>
>  I boarded a SEPTA train at the Philadelphia airport over a year ago.
> The change machine did not recognize the new $5 bill and the ticket
> machine did not work.  I mentioned this to the conductor and he did
> NOT charge the surcharge.

Until recently, while the published policy was that you paid a
surcharge if there was a ticket machine or ticket office open where
you boarded, the R1 conductors never charged it for passengers
boarding at the airport.  This was nice since it was extremely rare to
find a working change machine *and* a working ticket machine at the
airport stations.

That was back when SEPTA had ticket machines.  They're gone.  (Well,
you can buy an R7 ticket along with a NJT NEC ticket from the NJT
machines at 30th Street, but that's it.)  The excuse was, in fact,
that they didn't take paper money.  (Sure, it was annoying to visit
one machine to get dollar coins and another to get the ticket.  It was
still much faster than waiting for a cashier.)  SEPTA also now charges
a higher "onboard fare" whether or not there's an open ticket window
where you boarded.

The difference between the "onboard fare" and the "advance fare" is
less than the old onboard surcharge was, and they've even more
recently introduced a tedious scheme for getting a discount if you buy
onboard and then buy your return ticket from a cashier the same day.
It's still remarkably obnoxious.

Best,
-j.

>  > From: fwschneider at comcast.net> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> Subject: [PRCo] Re: [PRCo]End of a Street car line?> Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 15:20:57 +0000> > You want some real bargains Bob: > Compare Amtrak fares between Philadelphia and New York with the "indignity" of taking a SEPTA train to Trenton and changing to a New Jersey Transit local to New York. > > Amtrak varies from $45 coach to $111 for the Acela fare one-way. I think they have a 10% senior citizen discount. > > SEPTA's fare from Philadelphia to Trenton for seniors is $2.00. The New Jersey Transit senior fare is $5.75 from Trenton to New York. Total $7.75 versus $40 on Amtrak versus $50 plus tolls plus parking if you are insane enough to drive. > > My problem is the closest SEPTA fare to me is Exton or Downington and I would still have to drive into there and find a place to park. And SEPTA has an ingenious rule that says it doesn't matter if our fare machines don't take US paper money, if you don't have!
>   a ticket, you pay the surcharge ont he train for not having a ticket.