Skip to main content

$129.5 million Philadelphia fare system contract awarded to ACS

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) board has voted to award a contract of up to US$129.5 million to ACS Transport Solutions Group for equipment and services for the installation of a modernised fare system under its new payment technologies (NPT) programme.
March 26, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The 4288 Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) board has voted to award a contract of up to US$129.5 million to 13 ACS Transport Solutions Group for equipment and services for the installation of a modernised fare system under its new payment technologies (NPT) programme. The scheme will upgrade SEPTA's outdated fare payment and collection system. Current fare instruments such as tokens, paper tickets and magnetic strip passes will be replaced by contactless payment devices.

The NPT installation project will be divided into three phases and work is expected to be completed within three years.

The first phase focuses on design and testing, with implementation following in the second and third phases. NPT will be rolled out first on buses and trolleys, followed by the Market-Frankford and Broad Street lines, and then the Regional Rail system.

For the 90 per cent of SEPTA customers who use buses, trolleys, the Market-Frankford Line and the Broad Street Line, the major change will be moving to a user-friendly fare system. NPT will retain some familiar transit fare elements while adding modern amenities. This includes upgrading fare boxes on buses and trolleys and turnstiles at subway stations to accept contactless payments. Customers will pay fares with a simple "tap" of their contactless device of choice upon entry to vehicles and stations.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Connected Vehicles test vehicle to vehicle applications
    January 19, 2012
    In the US, the ITS Joint Program Office is about to conduct a series of Driver Clinics intended to gauge public reaction to Connected Vehicle safety technologies and applications. Starting in August, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) will test Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) applications with everyday drivers in what it describes as 'normal operational scenarios'. These Driver Clinics are being carried out at six locations across the US and together with the subsequent model deployment beginning in 2012,
  • EU to fund common train control system
    April 15, 2015
    The EU's TEN-T Programme is to provide funding of over US$16 million for the development and installation of the common European Train Control System (ETCS) in Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark and the UK. The new system is expected to improve the interoperability, safety, reliability and capacity on European railways. Seven separate projects aim to contribute to the deployment of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) in the EU and enhance interoperability of European rail services. While increa
  • The challenging European road to carbon neutrality and the need for distance-based charging
    November 1, 2023
    Fuel taxes are falling and EVs have the potential to create social equity issues. The answer may lie in expanding the use of technology which has successfully been used for two decades with trucks
  • Improving the positional accuracy of GNSS road user charging
    July 23, 2012
    The European GINA project is intended to address and overcome many of the institutional, technical and public acceptance hurdles currently faced by satellite-based road user charging schemes. Dave Tindall and Denis Naberezhnykh, TRL, and Laure Dezes, ERF, write. Pay-as-you-drive Road User Charging (RUC), whereby demand (or congestion) is managed by applying appropriate tariffs in order to encourage drivers to make their journeys at less busy times, on less congested routes or even on different modes, could