SEPTA Monthly Pass & Parking (Washington: for sale, month-to-month, to buy)

[Angus215]

Please help me out here, as SEPTA's web site is not very helpful. For monthly permit parking, do you really have to buy it on the 20th day of the month (before they sell out) at the station, every single month? This is what the employee at the station (Ft Washington) told me. Isn't there a way for it to renew automatically? Otherwise, some months you might get it, other months they may sell out before you get there?

For the monthly trail pass, are you now able to get that on the Septa Key? I bought a weekly pass today, and they gave me the old paper version.

[chessimprov]

SEPTA | SEPTA | News & Events
They are making a lot of changes these next few months.
I tried to look up things for automating on the SEPTA key. I haven't created an account. Maybe someone who has time and an account already can use their account to see if you can automate payments. If you do have to automate payments, it'd have to be through the SEPTA key.

[Angus215]

Here’s what I’ve been able to learn - there are 3 potential ways to get parking:
(1) Permanent permit parking - you need to call SEPTA to get an application, or more likely be put on a wait list. In the case of Ft. Washington, there is an estimated 3 1/2 year wait.
(2) Month-to-month permit parking - a limited number of permit passes are held to be sold at the station, rather than to permanent permit holders. These are available for sale at the station on the 20th day at each month, on a first come first served basis, and are good for the following month. At popular stations, you probably need to get there early in the morning, before they run out. Because it is sold on a monthly basis, you may get it one month, but not the following month.
(3) Daily parking - this apparently still relies on the incredibly antiquated 4 quarters in the board method. However, there are key card machines sitting there next to the “quarter board”, which don’t appear to be usable yet. I believe at some point in the future, you will be able to put cash on your key card and pay for parking at the machines using that, rather than using quarters.

Regarding the trail pass itself, you can get a weekly or monthly pass loaded onto a key card. I believe you can then renew it online, once you have a key card (though haven’t been able to test it myself yet). You can buy the key card at machines located in the major station. If you buy a pass at a regular station, they give you a paper pass which is not reusable.

[magiscratch]

I've been told that people who are getting monthly parking passes will continue to use the legacy train passes, since we must purchase the legacy pass (or show it if you purchased it elsewhere) in order to purchase the parking pass. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure you will have to purchase a monthly train pass in order to get the parking pass. You won't be able to purchase the parking pass on its own or with a weekly pass. I have been told that SEPTA does not yet know how they are going to handle monthly parking passes and Key Card users, so we're supposed to keep getting the legacy passes until they do.

I think for your situation, might be best to get the Key Card and start putting your monthly pass on it. Once you have the card, I'm pretty sure you can reup via the app or website. Then get a roll of quarters and pay for your parking daily, assuming that daily spaces are available (you should check that first). Some stations fill up by 8 a.m. Eventually, yes, you will be able to add money to your Key Card for parking and use that to pay daily. Perhaps eventually SEPTA will also change how they do monthly passes and you will be able to buy your monthly train and parking passes online. Fingers crossed!

At my current station (Chestnut Hill West), monthly passes do not sell out. Therefore I'm going to keep on getting legacy passes and the monthly pass at the train station each month until they tell me different. Rumor has it they hope to have it figured out by the end of the year. I guess that means 2019 but who knows.