If all goes as planned, tokens and dollar bills will no longer weigh down SEPTA transit.
A proposed "smart card" system will employ card sensor readers that will work on SEPTA buses, subways and trains, SEPTA representative Gary Fairfax said.
It would take about three years to develop the system.
Plans have been forestalled because SEPTA planners are weighing the different plans of prospective companies for the system, Fairfax added.
Fairfax added that "contactless card readers" on buses and trains will read these cards and other "emerging media sources." The idea stems from similar systems already implemented in Boston and Atlanta, he said.
Full-service smart-card vending machines will be offered in a variety of terminal locations.
Students say they would welcome a new system.
"It's pretty annoying how you can pay only with tokens or a TransPass," College junior Elise Miller said. "I've gotten caught in situations where I couldn't buy tokens or find two dollar bills and had to find another way home."
College sophomore Jonathan Packer, a Boston native, explained that his city uses "Charlie cards" - plastic cards with proximity sensors that, when waved in front of the smart card detector, will deduct money from the card and allow passengers into the railway.
"It's really easy," Packer said. "You don't even have to take the card out of your wallet."
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