New city program offers free SEPTA rides to low-income Philadelphians

Over the last month, fully loaded SEPTA Key Cards have appeared in 1,000 mailboxes across Philadelphia, the beginning of the city’s two-year Zero Fare program to provide all-access public transit passes for people living in poverty.

Enrollment is automatic to eliminate barriers for low-income residents to access the new benefit.

“There is no application and no card activation step required: Simply tap and go,” said Nicola Mammes, director of the program. “You can start riding SEPTA immediately.”

Mayor Jim Kenney and a host of city officials provided an update Wednesday on the Zero Fare pilot initiative, which is expected to have 25,000 participants by the end of the year in what transit experts have called perhaps the most expansive such program in the country.

“Public transit is meant to connect us, but for many of our city’s low-income residents, the cost of transportation is a barrier to achieving a better life,” Kenney said. He announced the project in March during his annual budget address to City Council.

The city government separately offers free SEPTA passes to its 27,000 employees under the transit agency’s Key Advantage program, in which employers purchase fares at wholesale prices and make them available to their workers.

To pick 90% of the low-income recipients of the free Key Cards, city officials entered into a lottery people between the ages of 18 and 64 who had received a benefit targeted at low-income households within the last year, Mammes said. That ensures that people who get cards are eligible and don’t need to go through more red tape, she said, and the lottery was used to make the process fair.

An additional 10% of recipients are being enrolled by community organizations that primarily serve immigrant and refugee communities in the city. The organizations include Esperanza, the African Cultural Alliance of North America (ACANA), New World Association, Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp., Puentes de Salud, and SEAMAAC, which serves Southeast Asian immigrants.

To qualify for Zero Fare, recipients can make up to 150% of the federal poverty rate, or $29,580 for a two-member household and $45,000 for a household of four.

People who receive a Key Card can call 311 to be connected to a customer service representative or email zerofare@phila.gov with questions or concerns, city officials said.

SEPTA officials say that the first recipients have used their new Key Cards about 7,000 times so far for rides on the system. The program covers fares for all SEPTA services: buses, trolleys, transit trains, Regional Rail and the paratransit and CCT rides.

With a poverty rate of about 23%, according to Census Bureau statistics, Philadelphia is the poorest big city in the United States. City officials estimate 426,000 people would be eligible for the free fares.

“This is a big deal,” said Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr., who said he grew up poor. “If you are a person of those kinds of means, you remember reaching into the couch looking for that change that may have fallen out so you could put together your carfare.”

Combined, the Zero Fare program and the Key Advantage for city workers could put about 50,000 more people on SEPTA, which is good for the transit system and also would boost public safety, said Jones, who represents parts of West and Northwest Philadelphia.

“You start to put more people on the system, and we’re all safer,” he said.