Affordable transportation remains a critical challenge for many low-income Philadelphia residents, limiting their ability to work and access services. This report examines Philadelphia’s Zero Fare transit pilot program, a novel approach to reducing transportation barriers by providing fully subsidized public transit through automatic enrollment. The City of Philadelphia funds and administers Zero Fare with support from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). 

Drawing on interviews with program administrators and community partners and focus groups with recipients, the report examines how Zero Fare was designed and implemented, what worked well, what challenges emerged, and the lessons it offers for transit agencies and policymakers nationwide.

Why This Matters

People who struggle to afford transit face barriers to economic mobility and reduced quality of life, and yet most transit benefit programs offered on the nation’s largest transit networks reach only a fraction of eligible riders. Zero Fare demonstrates that reducing administrative barriers can dramatically increase participation. The findings in this report are relevant for city and state policymakers, transit agencies, and human services administrators considering income-based fare programs.

What We Found

Philadelphia’s Zero Fare transit pilot program stands out nationally for both its design and outcomes. Key findings from the evaluation include the following:

• Fully subsidized transit meaningfully improves recipients’ lives. Recipients widely reported that free transit reduced financial strain, lowered daily stress, and expanded access to work, errands, health care, education, and recreation. Many described the benefit as life-changing, particularly those navigating unemployment, low wages, disabilities, or caregiving responsibilities.
• Automatic, application-free enrollment leads to unusually high participation. Participation rate among auto-enrollees reached 54.3 percent, substantially higher than most income-based fare programs offered on large US transit systems, which typically serve less than 30 percent of eligible riders.
• Low-barrier, assisted enrollment is essential for some populations. Partnerships with trusted community-based organizations were crucial for reaching immigrants excluded from other public benefits. Fast, in-person enrollment through trusted nongovernmental organizations, with minimal documentation, helped overcome language barriers, fear of government, and logistical constraints.
• Zero Fare’s design supports efficient program administration and innovation. City and SEPTA administrators reported that eliminating applications enabled rapid program launch and lean staffing. The city’s use of existing administrative data to identify eligible residents illustrates how creative, rigorous data integration can make public programs more user-friendly.
• Free transit benefits may strengthen transit systems and public trust. Recipients reported riding SEPTA more often because of their Zero Fare benefit, suggesting the program may contribute to ridership recovery and a positive feedback loop for system quality. Although most recipients’ views of SEPTA and city government stayed the same, sizable minorities said the program improved their perceptions and made them feel cared for by public institutions.

How We Did It

The research team interviewed city officials, SEPTA staff, and community-based organization partners involved in designing and administering Philadelphia’s Zero Fare transit pilot program. The team also conducted focus groups with 61 Zero Fare recipients, including both auto-enrollees and those enrolled through community-based organizations, with interpretation provided for non-English speakers. This report builds on earlier phases of the evaluation, which included a landscape analysis of benefit enrollment approaches and an examination of income-based discounted fare program participation rates.