just a few observations of ways to handle zone fares and transfers, or even joint fares between agencies that I've noticed over the years and thought interesting enough to comment on.
Boston. I assume once upon a time Boston did not have zone fares, and when they instituted them the folk musicians wrote the song http://www.maj.org/p2005/ThisLand_mta.html#Lyrics about Charlie who didn't have the nickel to pay the zone charge and so couldn't get off the train. I often have wondered since his wife could hand him a sandwich every day when the train went by she didn't just hand him a nickel.
The variation I saw was that light rail subway stations would collect fares at cashier booths, on the surface inbound trains would collect fares at the front door, outbound surface stops they'd collect no fares, consequently they could open all doors.
I grew up on Philadelphia. The entire city was considered 1 zone, so I was a bit confused when I visited Boston, since for light rail at least there's more than 1 zone inside the city. In Philly city both bus and light rail pay at the front door as you enter, routes that went outside the city pay the zone fare when you exit. Consequently only use the front door outside the city. Some light rail subway stations had cashier booths, some did not, but at rush hour would have a platform attendant to collect paper transfers from other lines, or inspect passes, at the center door.
Bus and Lines that operated entirely in the suburbs from the rail hubs, primarily 69th St Upper Darby and Norritsown, outbound passengers would pay as they exited from the front door. I'm pretty sure if one boarded at a non-terminal stop you got a voucher ticket, when you got off if you didn't have that voucher they calculated your zone fare as if you boarded at the origin. Inbound you payed upon boarding. I'm not sure how they handled the case of somebody who on boarding would tell the fare collector that they were only going 1 zone, but who would then try to ride further than 1 zone.
I can't say what it was like when my dad or big brother paid my fares, but prior to SEPTA, in my fare paying lifetime, I knew of no thru ticketing between the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company, or Red Arrow Lines, and Philadelphia Transportation Co, PTC, even thought the majority of Red Arrow's business was feeding passengers to the Market Frankford El at 69th St. Even after SEPTA took over both operations they still did not provide thru ticketing, and when they did start it they had a special colored transfer coupon charging a different rate than regular transfers. Sometime since then they have however made fares somewhat seamless over the entire system.
I don't know of any time that SEPTA bus trolley or subway had a joint ticketing arrangement with NJTransit bus. They have had joint railroad tickets with NJTransit Northeast Corridor line.
They also had from the beginning, 1968, an extremely cumbersome, and not very well advertised discounted round trip program with PATCO.
This part I think is now no longer available: Philly to NJ passengers inside the prepaid area at SEPTA Walnut-Locust or 8th and Market subway stations could ask the cashier for a return trip ticket. Please remember that the booths are set up so that the cashier can interact with incoming passengers BEFORE pay their fare and go through the turnstile, so from inside you have to somehow get the cashier to turn around, and then speak loud enough so they can hear you through the window grill that's pointing away from you, then you have to lean over to get the ticket through the slot under the grill. I never could figure why they didn't just put a spool of them on a device like a paper towel dispenser, since you needed to validate it at a PATCO machine in New Jersey. At any rate when validated, and with a time limit, it was good for a free return ride on certain SEPTA lines.
The other discounted round trip is still available today. PATCO's ticket vending machines are as you might expect, outside the prepaid area. After you go through the turnstile you can buy a time and date stamped ticket good for a round trip on SEPTA at less than 2 times the one way fare. PATCO has gone through at least 3 models of vending machines in the past 40 years, but I guess they thought since the SEPTA to PATCO round trip didn't last the whole 40 years then the PATCO to SEPTA round trip was not worth the effort of making 1 machine to handle both regular and joint tickets.
Pittsburgh's collection system was similar to Philly's suburban lines, outbound pay as you leave, inbound pay as you enter. In all 3 cases, Boston, Philly suburban, Pittsburgh, it seems to me that the reason was the traffic flow was heavily one way with a few people gettin on at lots of little stops out of town, and lots of people gettin on at just a few big stops in town. When Pittburgh upgraded they changed the fare collection around a little bit and put cashiers at some of the new high platform stations, but I think they still the payment direction the same, except at cashier stations you'd pay the cashier as you passed them in or out, rather than pay the vehicle operator.
The only other place I remember seing on board zone fare collection was Chicago's Evanston line, sometime between 1978 and 1982, and I think it was a Sunday, so maybe busy times the cashier handled it. The conductor - 1 person of the 2 person crew on a 2 car train - walked through the car with a coin changer and a portable fare register. The fare register made all the right ding ding noises the really old fashioned museum pieces did.
Patrick Boylan
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