Unlocking SEPTA key : an analysis of the decisions leading to a new fare medium

Abstract

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is the sixth largest transit agency in the United States, serving 358 million passengers annually (APTA, 2015). Despite its size, SEPTA is the last major transportation agency to change their fare medium from tokens to contactless fare cards. Although the implementation is not currently complete for the Philadelphia metropolitan area (as of May 2017), the ten-year process provides information for the decisions made that led to delays. This thesis considers the decisions that SEPTA made during the implementation timeline by exploring the process through a public administration decision-making lens. Although a transit project of this size should expect some delays, they were prolonged due to funding difficulties, scope creep, technology obsolescence, bureaucratic inertia, technical issues, a lack of champion, unclear goals for implementation, and a risk averse nature enhanced by difficulties experienced by the Chicago Transit Authority. As the implementation enters the next phase, SEPTA should continue being transparent and explicit in announcing the delays for the system. There is a beneficial tradeoff of ensuring the tested marginal enhancement functions as expected with minimizing public disappointment and backlash.