SEPTA Postpones Fare Increases
by Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- SEPTA's new operating budget delays fare increases for another year, and its capital budget includes adding more hybrid buses to grow its greening fleet.
The transit agency decided to postpone hiking fares because the timing of it would coincide with the long-planned rollout of SEPTA Key, its new fare payment and collection system.
"So we deviated from our usual pattern of doing fare increases every three years," said SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch. "The last fare increase went into effect in July of 2013."
SEPTA will revisit the possibility of a fare increase at the earliest in July of 2017.
The SEPTA Board also approved spending nearly $412 million to acquire 525 diesel-electric hybrid buses so it can retire older straight diesel buses.
"Another step in building one of the cleanest bus fleets in the nation," said Busch.
He says at the end of the five-year contract with the manufacturer, New Flyer, 95% of SEPTA's buses will be the more energy-efficient hybrids.