There are several ways to get a glimpse of SEPTA’s upcoming year: review the annual budget, review its annual testimony before the City Council, and read between the lines.
Looking at SEPTA’s upcoming fiscal year, which starts on July 1st,
There is some very good news, some very bad news, and then news that can only be inferred by what was not said
SEPTA has proposed a budget without any service cuts and without any fare increases. It has asked the City to increase the annual subsidy so that if the State provides additional funding, the required local match will be there. During SEPTA’s presentation to City Council, there was no voiced opposition to providing SEPTA with 133 million dollars, an increase of almost 40 million.
Ridership has been increasing. It is now at 70% of pre-COVID levels and growing. For everyone other than cash payers, mostly those without access to bank accounts and credit cards, SEPTA now offers free transfers. SEPTA is attempting to address the difficulties it faces from desperate and ill people finding refuge on the EL and Broad Street subway through social service programs. Last year, it had eight contracted outreach teams at 22 different “hot spots”. While not a panacea, SEPTA’s program includes some shelter beds and training to help SEPTA workers deal with these difficult issues.
SEPTA remains optimistic that the State budget will include an additional 166 million, the funding SEPTA needs to avoid the draconian service cuts and fare hikes.
A closer look, however, tells a different story. SEPTA continues to bill Philadelphia for almost 100 % of the City Transit division subsidy, which is used by people who live both inside and outside of Philadelphia. SEPTA bills Philadelphia taxpayers for 70% of the regional rail line subsidy despite the overwhelming majority of train riders coming from the suburbs into the city.
SEPTA’s General Manager did not tell Philadelphia City Council about the disparity in local funding. Instead, she stressed that the local subsidy is matched by State Subsidies. “The city of Philadelphia is $133 million contribution under the budget proposal is a vital part of SEPTA’s annual budget. While it represents 7% of SEPTA’s operating budget it helps to leverage $1.1 billion in state operating funds .”
SEPTA’s program to increase safety on SEPTA through a high-tech camera system has failed.
“Unfortunately, our cameras are old. We have analog cameras, and while they have really helped the Philadelphia police identify, they’ve helped our District Attorney be able to prosecute with good evidence as far as the AI algorithms and how they use the back office and the analysis,it wasn’t a good fit. We’re going to continue conversations. It just wasn’t worth us investing in this type of technology without seeing the results that we wanted to see.” Explained SEPTA’s G.M. at the Council Hearing
New cameras are needed, and SEPTA claimed not to have the money to purchase them. In a direct answer to Council Member Young, who was concerned about riders’ safety and SEPTA’s failure to develop the program they were funded to use, SEPTA estimated it would need 30 million dollars to purchase all new cameras. What SEPTA’s general manager didn’t say was SEPTA has over ½ billion dollars in a “rate stabilization fund” that can be used to buy cameras and make the system both safer and cleaner.
There is still a shortage of Police Officers. The City’s and SEPTA’s plans to build bus shelters are behind schedule, with the euphemistic words being, “That program is not, you know, deploying at the rate that we would have liked it to be, especially throughout the pandemic.” Said the City’s representative to the SEPTA board.
The changes to the routes, called the “bus revolution”, are still not known, yet SEPTA announced at the hearing the SEPTA board would vote on the “revolution” at its May meeting.” Council Member Bass complained that routes were changed less than an hour before SEPTA’s Council Testimony, making it impossible for anyone to understand what was being discussed. Because the “revolution” must be cost neutral, any added bus or bus line means a bus or bus line is being removed from somewhere else. But SEPTA only announces the additions and not the subtractions.
There was no mention of what SEPTA writes is the most important issue to address: the lack of enforcement of traffic regulations. Nor was there any discussion about turning Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley into a transit-first region.
Will the “bus revolution” solve the problem of buses being canceled because of a lack of drivers? Not according to SEPTA’s general manager, who told Council, “I think next year when I’m in front of you, I’m going to be able to tell you that we’re very close or near to full head count on our bus operators.” In other words, we will change the bus routes but still not have enough drivers to drive them.
Not a single Council Member asked why Philadelphians are being forced to pay the legal bills of a Republican Party operator, an election-denying lawyer who tried to get the last presidential election overturned. Perhaps they would have, had SEPTA’s general manager honestly informed the City that SEPTA was supporting the Republican Party’s plan to disenfranchise Philadelphia Voters and take power away from the duly elected district attorney.
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