SEPTA begins implementing service cuts and fare hikes

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority has begun implementing drastic service cuts that will soon mean the end of a major rail line into New Jersey after the Pennsylvania Legislature failed to extend funding for the agency.

The transit agency, crucial to Philadelphia-area commuters, had a $213 million budget deficit as of the start of the new fiscal year on July 1. Democrats and Republicans in Pennsylvania’s divided state Legislature have been at an impasse over SEPTA funding, with Democrats criticizing Republicans’ funding proposal for the agency as unfairly raiding another state fund.

SEPTA says its budget shortfall leaves it with no choice but to raise fares by 21.5% and cut service by a staggering 45%. Included in those cuts is the complete elimination of the Trenton Line.

Bus and metro service cuts began to go into effect Aug. 24 and 25. Fare rates were set to increase Sept. 1, and regional rail service cuts were set for Sept. 2.

The agency’s cuts leave midday and weekend service on the Trenton Line reduced from hourly to every two hours. In January, the transit agency will completely discontinue all service on the Trenton Line.

Train service to central New Jersey will continue on the West Trenton Line, but service is also being reduced there. As with the Trenton Line, SEPTA is reducing midday service to every two hours while eliminating some evening service and one weekend trip. In January, rail service will be eliminated after 9 p.m.

SEPTA says riders can use SEPTA.org and the SEPTA app to view the new schedules both in the trip planner and on schedule pages.

Earlier in August, the Democratic-controlled Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Senate passed bills with dueling proposals for SEPTA funding.

Senate Republicans passed a bill that would use $419 million from the state’s public transportation trust fund to temporarily make up for SEPTA’s budget shortfall through 2026. That fund, though, is normally used to cover long-term capital improvement and maintenance projects, and Democrats have said it’s not a solution.

According to Spotlight PA, Secretary of Transportation Mike Carroll said the money in the public transportation trust fund isn’t surplus to use for day-to-day SEPTA operations, but rather is already allocated to other projects.

“That creates a huge problem when it comes to the capital needs across this commonwealth, and it does not solve the operating challenges,” Carroll told the state House Appropriations Committee, according to Spotlight PA.

Republicans’ proposal would use another $419 million from the fund to cover road and bridge expenses.

House Democrats, meanwhile, passed a transit funding bill that would use an additional 1.75% of sales tax revenue to fund transit agencies across Pennsylvania, which they said could cover those agencies’ expenses over the next decade.

In July, SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch told the New Jersey Independent that service cuts are “the last thing” SEPTA wants to do.

“We are still hopeful that a funding agreement, as part of a budget, can be agreed to,” Busch said.

He said at the time that as the cuts continue, it will eventually become much harder to resume service down the line even if funding is restored.

“If you get really far down the road, it ends up costing significantly more money to bring service back than to just preserve it, because you’re talking about having to maintain vehicles that are out of service, shut down tracks, all that,” Busch said. “That all costs a lot of money to take it out of service and then bring it back up to service. It really is kind of an unprecedented thing. There’s not really an equivalent that we can point to in another transit agency where something like this has happened, so probably a lot of unknowns, too, that we’ll run into once it starts.”