The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority recently announced that new turnstiles will be installed at their 13th and 34th street stations on the Market-Frankford line. The new turnstiles are designed to be around eight feet tall, a five foot difference from their predecessors, the current three foot turnstiles. The new turnstiles were designed specifically to stop fare evaders from climbing over or under the turnstiles. Fare evasion has accounted for around twenty-two million dollars in losses for SEPTA since July.
Andre Busch, the Director of Media Relations for SEPTA, shared his hope that the new turnstiles will deter non-commuter traffic;
“We think that this is gonna help with overall efforts to make sure our stations are a place where people are traveling to and from, stations are not intended to be places where people gather for long periods of time.”
An adjunct instructor at Temple University’s Department of Landscape Architecture, Jordan Salamane, had this to say when asked his thoughts on SEPTA’s new turnstile endeavor;
“By decreasing turnstile jumping opportunities, what SEPTA is really doing is decreasing access to the most vulnerable population of Philadelphia, decreasing their access to transit, and opportunities to have jobs and become paying SEPTA customers.”
To find more information regarding SEPTA’s recent, future, and pending projects, visit septa.planning.org
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