Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration on Monday approved the use of hundreds of millions of dollars in capital project funding for Philadelphia’s public transit agency to help it restore bus, trolley and rail services that it had eliminated to shore up its deficit-riddled finances.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority had made the request to comply with a judge’s order to undo the two-week-old cuts.
In his letter to SEPTA, Shapiro’s transportation secretary, Mike Carroll, called the authority’s request “both predictable and rueful” after Shapiro and Democratic lawmakers had been unable for the past two years to persuade enough Republican lawmakers to approve hundreds of millions more dollars in new transit aid to help fill deficits at transit agencies around the state.
The struggles in the nation’s sixth-most populous city reflect similar dilemmas at major transit agencies around the U.S. as they navigate rising costs and lagging ridership after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted commutes.
SEPTA — one of the nation’s largest mass transit agencies — had described the cuts as more drastic than any undertaken by a major transit agency in the U.S. but necessary to deal with a deficit of more than $200 million.
However, testimony in the court challenge described the cuts as being unnecessary and discriminatory toward poor and minority communities.
SEPTA said that shifting $394 million in state-provided capital funds could restore services and avoid other planned cuts for the next two years.
That’s about a year’s worth of funding it gets from the state for capital projects. The authority will still impose fare increases of 21.5% that it estimated will bring in $31 million a year.
Across the state, Pittsburgh Regional Transit is considering a 35% service reduction to help close what it calls a roughly $100 million deficit this year. That could include eliminating 45 bus routes, reducing 54 others and eliminating one of three light rail lines.
All told, SEPTA had warned that it will cut half its services by Jan. 1.
