The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is expanding the SEPTA Key Early Adopters fare payment program to include the Travel Wallet feature. The Travel Wallet enables riders to load Key smart cards with cash value and pay as they go on all buses, trolleys, and the Market-Frankford and Broad Street Lines.
"The Travel Wallet is a great option for customers who currently use cash or tokens and transfers for their regular travel," said SEPTA GM Jeffrey D. Knueppel. "It's also a convenient choice for those who only ride a few days a week or for occasional customers, because it eliminates the need to pre-purchase tokens or have exact change. Your SEPTA Key Card loaded with money in the Travel Wallet will always have the correct fare to pay for your ride."
SEPTA is using a soft-launch approach for the Travel Wallet to help familiarize customers with this new way of paying, and to help ensure the authority can address any issues that customers experience before moving to a larger rollout. The Travel Wallet launch will start with 1,000 new SEPTA Key cards.
During this soft-launch rollout, funds in a customer's Travel Wallet can only be used to pay for one person. It cannot be tapped multiple times to pay for more than one rider — this is a feature that will be added in a later phase of the Key rollout. Customers can have both a current TransPass and money in a Travel Wallet on a SEPTA Key Card, but the Travel Wallet funds will not be deducted if there are still rides available on the pass.
The Travel Wallet is the latest feature to be rolled out to customers as part of the SEPTA Key Early Adopters program. SEPTA is also continuing with sales of Key cards loaded Weekly and Monthly TransPasses at sales office locations. In addition, Quick Trips — a single ride, magnetic stripe ticket for Market-Frankford and Broad Street Line service — launched earlier this fall. Also, this week, seniors will start receiving their new SEPTA Key photo identification cards in the mail.
The region’s fixed-route system finished out the year with a total of 373.5 million rides. Adding 12.3 million rides over 2024 represents an increase that is equal to the annual transit ridership of Kansas City.
The service is a flexible, reservation-based transit service designed to close the first- and last-mile gaps and connect riders to employment for just $5 per day.
The upgraded system, which went live earlier this month, supports METRO’s METRONow vision to enhance the customer experience, improve service reliability, and strengthen long-term regional mobility.
The agreement provides competitive wages and reflects strong labor-management collaboration, positive working relationships, and a shared commitment to building a world-class transit system for the community, said RTA CEO Lona Edwards Hankins.
The priorities are outlined in the 2026 Board and CEO Initiatives and Action Plan, which serves as a roadmap to guide the agency’s work throughout the year and ensure continued progress and accountability on voter-approved transportation investments and essential mobility services.
