When I first moved to Philly from Jersey City, the most confusing thing for me was the subway system. This seems strange to me now, because really there are only two main lines to the subway system, but, at the time, the only way you could really ride the subway was to purchase tokens from either a teller or a machine.
Coming from New York and Jersey City, where both the MTA and PATH have reusable cards and make it relatively easy to purchase new ones from machines, the idea of using tokens was archaic. The worst part? Almost everything was cash only!
Since then, SEPTA (Philly’s transit authority) has thankfully started to roll out their new tap-to-use SEPTA Key cards and also offer single-use paper tickets from machines, but the system can still be confusing if you’re new, so I’ve written a short guide to getting started.
Navigating the Subway, or “El”
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