Title
Calling on Governor Josh Shapiro and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission to stave off fare hikes and service cuts to SEPTA by flexing federal infrastructure funds from state highway projects to local transportation authorities.
Body
WHEREAS, In July 2024, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a nearly $50 billion budget that failed to secure stopgap funding for SEPTA, which is facing a fiscal cliff due to federal COVID relief funds exhausting in April 2024; and
WHEREAS, State lawmakers agreed to work towards a funding solution for state transportation funding in Fall 2024. However, as the 2023-2024 legislative session comes to an end, the Pennsylvania General Assembly will most likely adjourn without a deal to fund the state's 57 transit authorities, which in total serve a million daily passengers across Pennsylvania; and
WHEREAS, In the wake of this decision, SEPTA has been sounding the alarm about fare hikes and steep service cuts the system will have to put into place if funding is not secured. These fare hikes and service cuts will begin in January 2025 and could cause $40 to $50 million in annual revenue losses as the system sheds ridership; and
WHEREAS, If the state fails to secure transit funding, SEPTA could be forced to reduce service by at least 20 percent. This will lead to fewer buses and trains, longer wait times, crowded platforms and transit vehicles, understaffed stations, and "unusable service on weekends" according to SEPTA officials. People will be less inclined to take transit, exhausting our City's roadways and driving jobs out of region; and
WHEREAS, These service cuts could engender a downward spiral in ridership numbers that have already been recovering slowly from their pandemic-level nadir. This would deny Southeastern Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth's most productive region, safe, efficient, affordable, and accessible mass transit; and
WHEREAS, Ridership collapse will reduce farebox revenues, forcing SEPTA to...
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