SEPTA is proposing the largest fare hike in its history. If passed by the SEPTA board, fares will increase by 45%. SEPTA also projected it will cut service 20 to 25% . Dozens of routes would be eliminated, and those that remain would operate with significantly less frequency. The cuts will force SEPTA to postpone its plans to overhaul the bus network, previously known as Bus Revolution.
The Public Hearing will be on December 13th. Please note the times: one hearing at 10:00 a.m. and one at 4 p.m. THERE ARE NO EVENING HEARINGS. This is not an accident, as the majority of riders who the fare hikes will overburden are low-income workers who cannot easily get off from work. It is unlikely those riders will be able to attend.
SEPTA has also moved the hearing to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia. Riders expecting the hearing to be where it has been for the last decade will not find it there.
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The fare increase will lead to a reduction in trips and riders, which will lead to further service cuts. SEPTA projects “there will be a lot of crowding on all of our [travel] modes, and we would basically have unusable service on weekends, on both Regional Rail and transit . . . SEPTA cannot confidently say that riders will be able to count on us for these critical daily trips in the future”.
The fare increases will bring in $64 million, less than 14% of SEPTA’s surplus and a mere 5% of its operating budget. Because the fare hike is the largest ever, no one can accurately project the loss of ridership or revenue. At some point, as SEPTA stated, raising fares will lead to such a loss of riders that revenues will go down, not up.
There is no need for fare hikes or service cuts. At the last public hearing, SEPTA revealed it has $535 million in a fare stabilization fund. If SEPTA used 20% of its surplus, no fare increase would be needed, nor would any service cuts. More importantly, SEPTA would remain reliable and avoid the projected “death spiral” if it drew down its surplus.
SEPTA continues to say it needs Governor Shapiro to “flex dollars” to cover its needs rather than use its reserves. The Governor promised to get all public transit systems in the state the money they needed two years ago, last year, and this fall. He did not.
In marked contrast to what the Governor did for suburban commuters using Interstate 95, the Governor didn’t get s- done for public transit riders. He is allowing SEPTA to hold the riders hostage and say, Governor, unless you fund SEPTA and other public transit systems, we will place SEPTA in a death spiral and force SEPTA’s riders to suffer.
Philadelphia’s appointments to the SEPTA board, a group of individuals responsible for overseeing SEPTA’s operations and making key decisions, can stop the fare increases. The Philadelphia appointments can force SEPTA to take the money out of the bank and keep operating at current fares and service.
Neither the Mayor nor the City Council has asked the City’s representatives to protect City Riders. Instead, the burden of SEPTA’s inability to successfully advocate and the Governor’s broken words will fall on those struggling to make ends meet, those who must use SEPTA. The Pew Charitable Trust found, “Among Philadelphians who take public transportation to work, 44 percent earn less than $25,000 per year. For them, in particular, fares can have a significant impact on household budgets.”
There is little question that if the Trump administration were raising fares and cutting services, the Democrats in Philadelphia would rise up and fight back. Cutting public transit harms riders, businesses that rely upon workers who use public transit, and the environment, as every bus takes cars off the road. Of course, it also makes the roads less crowded. What should be expected if there are another 450,000 cars on the roads at rush hour?
Yet there has been no response. Could it be that the local elected officials prioritize protecting the Governor’s reputation over the public’s interest?
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