Parking at SEPTA Regional Rail stations throughout the region has been free since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020, but that will likely change in the upcoming fiscal year.
According to SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch, with the start of the fiscal year on July 1, the mass transit provider will look to reinstate parking fees at Regional Rail stations across the system.
"The intention was always that we were going to reinstate it," he said Tuesday.
He said fees could initially return at the original rate of $1 for surface lots and $2 for garages, but they could also be twice that -- $2 for surface lots and $4 for garages.
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"The idea is for it to end up at $2 at some point," said Busch.
Busch said that SEPTA plans to hold meetings after the start of the new fiscal year to determine how parking fees would be reintroduced and rolled out, but said that whatever they decide, there will be a push to ensure riders are aware.
"We definitely aren't going to spring it on people," said Busch.
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Most likely, he said, parking fees would return late this year or sometime next year, and riders would be made aware of planned parking costs at least two months in advance.
Parking, he said, is a revenue source that SEPTA wants to tap back into as, in the year before they stopped asking riders to pay, parking brought in $4.7 million in annual revenue to SEPTA.
Also, along with discussions over how much SEPTA wants to charge for parking, Busch said that the mass transit provider will need to discuss how to improve and update services to allow riders to pay for parking.
"It doesn't reflect how people are paying for their fares or other things in their lives," he said, pointing to change collection systems in place at some Regional Rail stations.
Just what will be put in place to update payment options for parking has yet to be determined, he said.
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