Senior citizen discount

Watching one of my favorite rail YouTube channels, Retired Railfan, I learned that Senior citizens can get a free rail pass on SEPTA.

https://www.septa.org/fares/discount/s ... -info.html

I think this is awesome, NJ Transit should offer the same even if it’s only off peak.


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Tom V and Everyone:

SEPTA offers a Senior Citizen Key card to any riders 65 and over to ride free on Regional Rail and all other
SEPTA services within PA. For travel to Zone NJ - Trenton and West Trenton - and Delaware stations on the
Wilmington/Newark Line half fare applies at all times. Getting one requires a visit to a SEPTA facility such
as the Headquarters at 1234 Market Street in Center City Philadelphia.

For more information look in the ongoing SEPTA Key topic in the SEPTA Forum.

All Pennsylvania transit services offer free or reduced fares to Senior Citizens thanks to the revenues from
the Pennsylvania Lottery - which primarily benefits Senior Citizens statewide.

New Jersey Transit already offers substantial discounts to riders 62 and over with the proper ID if requested.
If you are 62 and over - and can prove it - you'll be good to go...MACTRAXX

MACTRAXX wrote: ↑Thu Nov 11, 2021 1:09 pm New Jersey Transit already offers substantial discounts to riders 62 and over with the proper ID if requested.

NJT reduced fare also applies to active, reserve and retired military. Eligible military personnel include Active
Duty, Reserve and National Guard, and those with official "Retired" status.

I've seen many NJT bus passengers show VA cards to the operator when boarding.

That's the critical element: the State Legislature decreed that State Lottery funds be used for this purpose, and each transit operator compensated according to a formula -- thus not an "unfunded mandate." It can't be changed except by legislation, something not likely to happen given the number of seniors in Pennsylvania.

New Jersey has approved recreational marijuana sales, although I don’t think it’s started yet. They can put some of the tax revenues into subsidies for transit like Pennsylvania does with the lottery.

I would offer free off peak rides for senior citizens, disabled vets and college students with valid id.

Peak I would continue to offer the current discounts for senior citizens, vets and students.


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Thanks for this info, it's useful for folks in South Jersey.

My biggest annoyance with NJT's senior discount policy is that it only applies to individual fares. It's absolutely bonkers to me that you can't get a senior monthly pass. Why would you make older people fiddle with exact change when getting on the bus instead of giving them something they can just flash at the bus driver? Plus for people whose English isn't great, would be a lot simpler to have someone buy a pass for them once a month instead of having to explain themselves, reach for ID/cash/etc every time they get on.

Years ago, Illinois had Seniors Ride Free, and it was found that the people using it most were six figure earners from the far suburbs commuting to their law offices and corporate exec jobs in downtown Chicago.... The state had to re-write the law to make it income based back in 2011.

CFR 49 $609.23 requires agencies receiving FTA grants/funding to offer 50% discounts for seniors.

[Corrected based on lensovet's correction]

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/609.23

Of course, NJT got rid of off-peak fares years ago, so that's a bit of a moot point these days.

(also just to clarify the law says that the off-peak senior rate must be no more than 50% of the peak non-senior rate. it doesn't say anything about off-peak non-senior rates or peak senior rates).

Yeah, I read that backward...

SEPTA has a flat $1.00 senior fare, but only within Pennsylvania.

nkloudon wrote:SEPTA has a flat $1.00 senior fare, but only within Pennsylvania.

NKL: SEPTA once *HAD* a flat $1 (or 85 cents with a Senior 10 trip strip ticket that cost $8.50)
fare on Regional Rail within PA. All of that was eliminated by the use of the Senior Key Card.
On all other SEPTA services proof of age was all that was needed for seniors to ride free.

The only remaining SEPTA Regional Rail senior fares are interstate to New Jersey and Delaware
from PA or between Claymont-Wilmington-Churchman's Crossing-Newark in Delaware.
This is all off the NJT topic but relevant to this discussion...MACTRAXX

What I find interesting about dropping the $1 and $.85 senior fare is that the SEPTA staff, in its resolute determination to reinvent the wheel (Not Invented Here? How do we know it'll work in Philadelphia?), couldn't find a way to collect it under the planned Key system; easier just to forgo it. I forget now just what the hangup was -- maybe MACTRAXX remembers.