SEPTA to stop selling tickets on afternoon trains

Starting Monday, SEPTA will not permit Regional Rail passengers on afternoon trains leaving Philadelphia to purchase tickets while they are on the train.

In an announcement made Thursday, SEPTA said the temporary change will require riders to purchase their tickets at ticket offices before boarding, 6ABC reported. The stations affected by the policy change will be Temple, Jefferson, Suburban, 30th Street and University City Regional Rail Station between 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

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“Fare-collection personnel will be stationed by each stairway. Once the fare has been validated or collected, customers will be able to proceed directly to the train platform and all stairways will be open,” SEPTA said in statement, according to 6ABC.

The recent scheduling changes due to the loss of the transit agency’s Silverliner V cars led to the new fare-collection method when SEPTA began receiving complaints about passengers riding for free because conductors couldn’t check all riders’ tickets on overcrowded trains, SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch toldPhilly.com.

“What we’re looking at overall with this is to just have a more efficient process for the evening rush,” Busch told Philly.com. “These five stations are the ones [where] we get the most traffic, and by doing this, it’ll help move things along.”

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The fare-collection procedures on morning, evening and weekend trains will not be affected by the change, according to 6ABC, which did not give an end date for the temporary afternoon change.