Over 40 public transit systems operate in Pennsylvania’s cities and towns. Only one — SEPTA — is slashing services now instead of waiting for the state legislature to resolve its budget impasse. The others have found a way to manage funds to keep their current level of service until the budget is passed and the funding levels are known. Why is that?
And why has not a single elected official or SEPTA board member publicly asked that question?
Both SEPTA Board Chair Kenneth E. Lawrence, Jr. and General Manager Scott A. Sauer have said at board meetings and press conferences that they do not want to make the cuts or raise fares to the highest in the nation, but they must. Their reasoning seems to be: SEPTA must make service cuts and raise fares now to avoid cutting service and raising fares later. Perhaps that would make sense if GM Sauer did not go on to say, “This is the beginning of the dismantling of SEPTA; SEPTA will no longer be able to offer reliable service to its riders.”
At that same meeting, one staffer confirmed that SEPTA has $396 million in a “stabilization fund” that can be drawn from. He also stated that the 20% planned service cuts would save approximately $5 million a month. GM Sauer has repeatedly said that once services are cut, they will be very difficult to reinstate. Laid-off bus operators and other employees, for example, may go elsewhere for work and be unwilling to return. (SEPTA already has a shortage of Bus Operators, which is why routes are canceled.)
Many of the states’ other public transit systems have links on their web pages urging riders to support additional funding for public transit. However, none project cuts before the budget is passed. In some areas, systems plan to continue operating and offering free rides and discounted fares with their present funding. Erie’s system offers free rides on Saturdays to its downtown and cultural attractions. It has a reduced fare for those receiving Medicare. The Schuylkill County system offers free rides once a month and offers other incentives to use the system. Harrisburg’s current budget impasse has not ended any of these programs.
SEPTA operates the most extensive transit system in Pennsylvania. The authority maintains the largest stabilization fund and the biggest line of credit specifically for the purpose of addressing cash flow problems.
Hall Monitor asked SEPTA’s public relations director, Andrew Busch , if any other system was cutting service before the budget was passed, and if not, why SEPTA has to cut service while others do not. Busch responded, “While I know that other agencies are facing similar cuts due to the transit funding crisis, I am not familiar enough with their budgets or operations to provide this type of comparison.”
Busch did not explain why no SEPTA board member or administrator has looked at how other systems were able to keep the buses running.
A Philadelphia Inquirer article on transit agencies across the state found many facing financial problems, but not a single one cutting service or raising fares. Yet no Philadelphia area elected official has asked why, if Pittsburgh, Erie, Allentown, Scranton, and others can keep the buses rolling while the budget is finalized, why can’t SEPTA?
One reason may be that SEPTA has failed to manage its finances well, most notably on Key Card cost overruns or its unusable “bus revolution.”
Or maybe SEPTA’s leaders just do not want to tell the public the truth: that it is not out of money and does not have to cut services or raise fares right now. SEPTA, in effect, was holding its riders hostage in an attempt to force the Republicans in Harrisburg to increase SEPTA’s funding. Republicans’ response: go ahead, we don’t care if you harm the riders. If SEPTA uses its rainy day fund to stop the cuts, it will have to admit it had the cash.
In any case, the people who depend on SEPTA are still waiting for one elected official to call on SEPTA to maintain current fares and level of service. Nor does either explanation offer any comfort for riders.
It seems that SEPTA’s GM has decided to make the riders wait and do without so that he does not have to wait for the budget to be finished.
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