SEPTA's Automated Fare System Scheduled To Enter Final Testing Phase Next Month
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Septa's long-awaited automated fare system is scheduled to enter its final testing phase, next month, when 50 Septa employees begin to use it in a pilot program.
Kiosks for the new Septa Key cards have gone up in several subway and el stations, along with new turnstiles, equipped with red-framed touchless pads; pad-equipped fare boxes have been installed on dozens of buses.
But before letting riders begin using the system, Septa is determined to make sure all the bugs have been worked out, according to Leslie Hickman, Deputy Chief Officer for integrating the technology.
"We need to test this system before we launch. Before we roll it out for our customers, we want them to have a product that we're proud to put out for them," she says.
The employees in the pilot project, she says, will "go out with scripted scenarios and record what the reaction time was, what the screen said, what the kiosk-- how that performed, did it give the change, did it process and then come back and make sure all those transactions were reported on the back end.
"It's a long, long process."
She estimates the initial pilot project will take 35 to 45 days. Then, there will be more tests.
"We're going to be testing many, many scenarios to make sure when a customer approaches a fare instrument, when we're ready to launch, that this system has been taxed."
She says the goal for the public roll-out is spring, which she acknowledges may be ambitious.
Sam Sulaiman, director of maintenance and engineering for the new technology, says there will be a long transition period, during which riders can continue to use tokens to purchase single ride cards and cash will always be accepted.
Septa hopes by the end of 2016, regional rail riders will use the cards too. They will have to swipe in at when they board and swipe again to get out at the five main destination stations-- University City, 30th Street Station, Suburban Station, Thomas Jefferson station (Market East) and Temple University.
In all, some 6,000 new pieces of equipment will be installed. The total cost is projected to be $130 million.
The end result will be the most comprehensive system of any large transit system in the country. Septa may have come late to automated fares but it will be the first to have a system that works on every mode of transportation in its system.
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