Token Machines Surface At 52nd St.

Hallelujah! Despite opening sparking new stations at 52nd and 46th streets in West Philadelphia, SEPTA forgot to put up token machines. Why? Because SEPTA hates you, the rider. (This should really be their motto. It could replace all those old “We’re getting there!” signs.)

But, it appears they don’t hate you all that much. SEPTA Watch reports there are now token machines at 52nd Street. Still no reports of token machines at 46th and 40th, but, hey, it’s a start.

Token machines come to 52nd Street Station! [SEPTA Watch]

No Free Rides For Beret-Wearing Men

The Guardian Angels have been patrolling SEPTA ever since a man was killed in the concourse a few weeks ago. And what a bang-up job they’ve been doing, with a two more attacks since the Angels started patrolling. (But not every attack was real!)

Of course, that’s being unfair to the Angels; they might not even be patrolling at all. Daily News reporter Damon C. Williams writes Angels founder Curtis Silwa is nowhere to be found now that he’s made his presence felt initially: “Curtis Sliwa seems to have disappeared during this recent crime wave, and commuters, interviewed live on various 5-and-11 p.m. newscasts, say they have yet to see any Angels really working in the subways, on the trains and platforms.”

Yesterday, the Angels met with Police Commissioner Charles Ramsay and asked for free rides on SEPTA. Whoops: No dice. Ramsay said, “That’s not my bailiwick.” Bailiwick! Really? Anyway, SEPTA says they’re not allowed to give free tokens to the Angels — which, honestly, seems weird — so I suppose they will have to disappear into the darkness. Until another dust-up in the city, when the Angels can announce they will be patrolling soon and everyone can report on it as if they haven’t announced they’d be patrolling areas many times before.

SEPTA To Use Tokens ‘Til You’re Dead

Now that the state legislature has given SEPTA adequate funding for the next whatever years, it’s only a matter of time before the transit agency ditches the token and moves to a more passenger-friendly card system used in, oh, pretty much everywhere else.

It is a matter of time, the problem being that “matter of time” here means “sometime two or three Popes from now.” SEPTA will be using tokens for the forseeable future, even though on August 1 paper transfers will be eliminated.

“We’re trying to get rid of the archaic 19th-century technology of tokens and transfers,” SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney told Metro. Ah, yes, I remember when Franklin Pierce used to climb onto SEPTA, paying his token for the bus and getting a paper transfer so he could ride the El downtown.

SEPTA does have new daily, weekly and monthly passes, which by getting rid of transfers they want everyone to buy. They’re also paying a consultant to tell them to switch to a card-based system. Whee!

SEPTA years from upgrading archaic fare collection system [Metro]