Do MFL's run all night on the weekend? (Somerset, Central City: credit, transfer)

[fatsquirrel]

So I am researching the status of MFL trains during the night time and it says that Night Owl busses are not available on the weekend.

Does this mean that trains run all night, or do they cut out after midnight and I would have to rely on the regular bus system? I'll be staying near the Somerset stop, is that too far to walk from Central City if I am unable to find a bus in the night?

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by fatsquirrel

So I am researching the status of MFL trains during the night time and it says that Night Owl busses are not available on the weekend.

Does this mean that trains run all night, or do they cut out after midnight and I would have to rely on the regular bus system? I'll be staying near the Somerset stop, is that too far to walk from Central City if I am unable to find a bus in the night?

MFL trains run on Friday and Saturdays all night. Other nights you would need to take the nite owls.

[fatsquirrel]

Originally Posted by kyb01

MFL trains run on Friday and Saturdays all night. Other nights you would need to take the nite owls.

Ok great thanks!

[AJNEOA]

SEPTA | Market-Frankford Line

http://www.septa.org/schedules/transit/pdf/mfl.pdf

Get the SEPTA app. It has schedules and real-time tracking information for your phone so you can always get the latest updates and find a train/bus.

[chessimprov]

Originally Posted by fatsquirrel

So I am researching the status of MFL trains during the night time and it says that Night Owl busses are not available on the weekend.

Does this mean that trains run all night, or do they cut out after midnight and I would have to rely on the regular bus system? I'll be staying near the Somerset stop, is that too far to walk from Central City if I am unable to find a bus in the night?

It's not recommended you walk all that way.
I get the sense you have the street smarts to do so.
But, yeah, even taking an Uber/Lyft is worth it if you can't get all the way back, especially if the late night buses don't get you close enough to where you're going or if the schedule is hard to figure out.

[moneymkt]

Originally Posted by fatsquirrel

So I am researching the status of MFL trains during the night time and it says that Night Owl busses are not available on the weekend.

Does this mean that trains run all night, or do they cut out after midnight and I would have to rely on the regular bus system? I'll be staying near the Somerset stop, is that too far to walk from Central City if I am unable to find a bus in the night?

I would think a Uber is a better option after midnight instead of the El

[fatsquirrel]

Ok I took the L and it was the same as a regular nyc train. I had trouble figuring out how to get a multi ride metro card so I bought single ride and didn’t get the discount. Thanks for the info.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by fatsquirrel

Ok I took the L and it was the same as a regular nyc train. I had trouble figuring out how to get a multi ride metro card so I bought single ride and didn’t get the discount. Thanks for the info.

Our stored-value farecard is called SEPTA Key.

You can find kiosks that issue them at every rapid transit station; they have "Fare Kiosk" signs on top.

The user interface is clunky and still somewhat counter-intuitive even after it got tweaked some months ago.

SEPTA simply ported its old fare structure and discounts over to the new system when it was rolled out three years ago.

Here are your options for multi-ride fares:

Travel Wallet - This is the stored-value cash fare. If you don't think you will be taking more than two separate trips (one-way, no transfers) every day, your best bet is to load cash onto a Travel Wallet. Fares are deducted at the discounted rate (I don't know what the discount is now, but it's a decent saving over the $2.50 cash base fare. In addition, if you transfer from bus to train or vice versa, or transfer between buses, you now have to pay a separate $2.50 fare on each vehicle if you pay cash, while the second vehicle fare is only $1 when transferring using the Travel Wallet.

Passes - Instead of switching to a true multi-trip, flexible discount fare or all-you-can-ride pass, SEPTA simply moved the old calendar-based, capped passes onto the Key. The passes are set to give you eight trips a day for one day (One Day Convenience Pass - 8 trips), seven days (weekly pass, good Monday-Sunday - 56 trips), or 30 days (monthly pass, good starting the first of the month - 240 trips). Fares are priced at the equivalent of a little more than five single-vehicle round trips (10 total) weekly or 19 single-vehicle round trips (38 total) monthly. A weekly pass costs $25.50 and a monthly pass costs $96.

If you plan on riding the El every weekday to and from your residence, buying a pass is your best bet. Should you exceed the trip cap (only about 2 percent of all pass holders do), you'd need to pay for your extra trips with money stored in your Travel Wallet until your new pass takes effect.

You can also buy Key cards and refill them online. The interface at the old site above is much worse than the one at the new beta site below:

Welcome to SEPTA Key® - The Future of Fare Payment | SEPTA

New cards cost $4.95. Register your card at the Key website within 30 days of purchase and the purchase price is credited to your Travel Wallet. This is recommended because you can retrieve your stored value if your registered card is lost or stolen. Key cards also function as prepaid MasterCard debit cards; you can find out more about how to load spending money onto them here. The cards remain valid for three years from when they're issued.

[moneymkt]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Our stored-value farecard is called SEPTA Key.

You can find kiosks that issue them at every rapid transit station; they have "Fare Kiosk" signs on top.

The user interface is clunky and still somewhat counter-intuitive even after it got tweaked some months ago.

SEPTA simply ported its old fare structure and discounts over to the new system when it was rolled out three years ago.

Here are your options for multi-ride fares:

Travel Wallet - This is the stored-value cash fare. If you don't think you will be taking more than two separate trips (one-way, no transfers) every day, your best bet is to load cash onto a Travel Wallet. Fares are deducted at the discounted rate (I don't know what the discount is now, but it's a decent saving over the $2.50 cash base fare. In addition, if you transfer from bus to train or vice versa, or transfer between buses, you now have to pay a separate $2.50 fare on each vehicle if you pay cash, while the second vehicle fare is only $1 when transferring using the Travel Wallet.

Passes - Instead of switching to a true multi-trip, flexible discount fare or all-you-can-ride pass, SEPTA simply moved the old calendar-based, capped passes onto the Key. The passes are set to give you eight trips a day for one day (One Day Convenience Pass - 8 trips), seven days (weekly pass, good Monday-Sunday - 56 trips), or 30 days (monthly pass, good starting the first of the month - 240 trips). Fares are priced at the equivalent of a little more than five single-vehicle round trips (10 total) weekly or 19 single-vehicle round trips (38 total) monthly. A weekly pass costs $25.50 and a monthly pass costs $96.

If you plan on riding the El every weekday to and from your residence, buying a pass is your best bet. Should you exceed the trip cap (only about 2 percent of all pass holders do), you'd need to pay for your extra trips with money stored in your Travel Wallet until your new pass takes effect.

You can also buy Key cards and refill them online. The interface at the old site above is much worse than the one at the new beta site below:

Welcome to SEPTA Key® - The Future of Fare Payment | SEPTA

New cards cost $4.95. Register your card at the Key website within 30 days of purchase and the purchase price is credited to your Travel Wallet. This is recommended because you can retrieve your stored value if your registered card is lost or stolen. Key cards also function as prepaid MasterCard debit cards; you can find out more about how to load spending money onto them here. The cards remain valid for three years from when they're issued.

I don't like how it only offers weekly or monthy passes especially during 5 week months

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by moneymkt

I don't like how it only offers weekly or monthy passes especially during 5 week months

The length of the month in weeks doesn't matter one bit.

Weekly pass holders will buy 52 passes each year, each good for seven days. Monthly pass holders will purchase 12, each good for an entire month of 28 (29 in leap years), 30 or 31 days. No days are left uncovered under either pass plan - except for the 31st of a 31-day month as far as the 8-trip-per-day formula is concerned. However, since only a small percentage of monthly pass users exceed 240 trips each month, the unused trips each day add up to enough to take care of day 31.

The only area where a problem will arise is if a rider switches from one pass type to the other. A monthly pass holder who adopts weekly passes will either have a few days left uncovered at the end of the month unless they switch over in a month that ends on a Sunday, and a weekly pass user who starts buying monthly passes will pay for a few days' worth of rides twice unless they switch over in a month that begins on a Monday. (Or vice versa, depending on whether the weekly user opts to not buy a weekly pass to cover the days until the new month begins or the monthly user buys a weekly pass before the old month ends.)

I would have preferred to see SEPTA adopt either a straight bulk-ride discount - i.e., you pay for 50 or 250 discounted trips and then re-up once you've used all 50 or 250, no matter how long or short a time that takes - or an "all-you-can-ride" pass that expires either 7 or 30 days from date of first use without regard to the calendar.