Free parking at SEPTA Regional Rail lots is slated to end

For more than four years, parking has been free at SEPTA’s Regional Rail surface lots and the Frankford Transportation Center, Norristown, and Lansdale garages. That is slated to change sometime next fiscal year, which starts July 1.

During budget hearings, SEPTA officials said the agency was looking to raise the daily rate at its 135 surface lots to $2 from $1 and at the three garages to $4 from $2. Agency spokesperson Andrew Busch said Monday SEPTA understands how adding a fee back could impact riders, but they hope riders see public transit as an overall value.

“When you look at what they would pay, the additional time they would spend on the road, cost of gas, and congestion, [SEPTA is] still significantly less expensive, and from our standpoint, more convenient,” he said.

SEPTA has long considered the Regional Rail parking a courtesy for riders, which is why the agency aimed to keep the daily parking rates low. Those lots and garages, however, require maintenance.

Busch said SEPTA’s board voted on a provision that would have allowed daily parking rates to increase in summer 2020, but that plan took a pause as ridership took a hit during the pandemic. SEPTA got rid of the daily rates entirely in an effort to make Regional Rail as attractive as possible.

Still, Regional Rail is at about 65% of pre-pandemic ridership and the agency suspects it has a lot of its former passengers back, but they might not be traveling as frequently due to hybrid schedules. So “the timing is right” to bring back parking fees, said Busch.

The fees will help offset lot maintenance and remaining funds could help fill gaps in the $1.74 billion operating budget, which will see the last of its pandemic federal funding this fiscal year while investing in aging transit infrastructure.

“We’re looking at all kinds of different ways to raise revenues, so this is going to be part of that,” said Busch.

As SEPTA looks to reimplement daily parking fees at its lots and garages, it will also look to give its low-tech payment system an upgrade. With the previous system, riders had to slip quarters into what looked like a mailbox. The agency is seeking a vendor to get electronic payment systems in place. Once a vendor is in place, the agency would begin outreach efforts, explaining what the fees would be used for and giving riders a heads-up.

“We can’t just assume everybody knew that at some point this is going to come back because maybe that was never their experience before,” Busch said of newer riders.