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Have you ever misplaced your PATCO fare card? Or showed up late to work because you had to buy a ticket and the line was too long? Lucky for you these problems will be eliminated soon enough. PATCO is planning a new fare payment system that will allow riders to use contactless cards and smartphones to pay for train rides. Because technology is advancing, PATCO wants to make sure they keep up with these changes, as well as, the customers who are moving ahead with them.
With smart chip technology, the new cards will be proposed to authorities and PATCO will wait for approval. Officials are still working out the details on this new payment system. While so many riders use the Freedom fare card, PATCO CEO John Hanson believes it will be possible to completely phase them out with this new idea.
PATCO expects to kick off a series of upgrades this month that will last over the next three years and cost about $6 million.
While other transit agencies have experimented with new technology advances, PATCO was able to sit back and watch. Miami-Dade County’s Metrorail transit system is very similar to PATCO in that they share the same fare system provider, Cubic Transportation Systems. Miami-Dade’s Metrorail rolled out their contactless payment program, and watching this gave PATCO officials valuable insight into executing their own upgrade.
For more information about these new advances, check out Plan Philly’s article HERE.
