This Thursday, the Board of the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority, SEPTA, will vote on the question: Should it eliminate 45 % of its service and raise fares by 21.5%, along the lines of what the Republicans in Harrisburg are asking, or will the SEPTA board represent the interest of the riders, the region, the environment and the long term financial health of the Delaware Valley by refusing to “begin to dismantle the system’.
SEPTA’s new General Manager, Scott Sauer, has called the budget proposal before the Board a “doomsday scenario.” He argues against it, but doesn’t recommend the Board reject it. SEPTA’s general manager says he doesn’t have a choice. A statement that is factually untrue and left unchallenged by our elected officials.
Suppose the Board does what G.M. Sauer asks. In that case, 50 bus routes will be eliminated, five regional rail lines will be abandoned, there will be an across-the-board 20% reduction in all remaining services, all sport express trains and subways will be eliminated, a 9 pm curfew will be imposed on Metro and Regional Rail lines, and 66 stations will be closed. The General Manager then recommends that the SEPTA Board vote to force riders to pay, on average, 21.5% more for the drastically reduced service.
Two days of public hearings were held on the proposal. The hearing examiner refused to allow members of the public to get answers to questions. Questions such as, how much money does SEPTA have in its “stabilization fund”‘; if closing the regional rail lines saves 3 times the amount of money as ending the 50 busses in the City Transit Division, why is SEPT proposing to first end service in the City and then, 6 months later cut service on the Rail Lines? If SEPTA were to use all of its stabilization funds, how long could it continue to operate?
The hearing examiner, appointed by the SEPTA board, year after year, did what she had done in the past. Recommended, without a single change or suggestion for improvement, the budget submitted by the Board’s newly hired General Manager be approved.
The Hearing Examiner does find that SEPTA will use some of its Stabilization fund, $113 million, but she fails to state or even inquire as to how much was in the fund to start with and how much will be left.
In past years, SEPTA proposed budgets assuming the State would provide the necessary funds. And the State did. This year, SEPTA’s management and its Board are projecting it will fail to lobby to keep the system operating successfully. It is budgeting no additional dollars from state money despite the governor’s promise of additional funding.
If the board votes to cut the service by 40% and raise fares by 21.%, they will, according to SEPTA’s General Manager, leave “the public without reliable public transportation” and diminish access to jobs, schools, health care, and further congest the roads and highways.”
Ending public transportation will not end the need for the public to travel. It will do what the Republicans in Harrisburg have been calling for: begin the privatization of public transportation, even though SEPTA was created after private transportation companies failed.
General Manager Sauer has already stated, on the record, that SEPTA will consider privatization as an alternative to the current system.
The question is, does the Board have no choice? Must they do this to the riders? Dismantle the system? Keep hundreds of millions of dollars in a stabilization fund?
If the hearing examiner had allowed riders to ask questions and get answers, the public would have known that SEPTA was purposely misleading the public. There is no law, no court order, and no gun to the head of the General Manager or the Board to pass a budget that projects 40% service cuts and 21.5% fare hikes. In the past, SEPTA has passed budgets projecting success in lobbying for the funds it needs to continue operating; this year, it has given up without a fight.
Realistically, does anyone believe that if SEPTA passes a budget assuming the State Legislature will not fully fund it, the Legislature will give SEPTA more than what SEPTA is asking?
The Board can vote no and reject the proposal. None of the Board members will be arrested, and none will be jailed. SEPTA can keep operating at its current levels using its reserves. If the Board takes the advice of the late Congressman John Lewis: “Don’t give up on the things that have great meaning to you, don’t get lost in a sea of despair. Stand up for what you believe in . . .Speak up, speak out, get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America, the riders will have greater hope for the future.
If the Board votes for the service cuts and fare hikes, they will be giving a present to the Republicans in Harrisburg who do not believe in the concept of public transportation and are turning their back on John Lewis’s legacy.
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