On April 10, the South-Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) announced widespread service cuts and fare increases for the 2026 fiscal year. The cuts, which total a 45% reduction of service, are the culmination of several years of long-term deficits that have only been met with short-term solutions.
Pennsylvania’s yearly allocation of around $1 billion to the agency has long been insufficient to maintain service amidst rising inflation and, in the years during the COVID-19 pandemic, decreasing ridership. During the pandemic, hundreds of millions of dollars allocated to SEPTA in federal stimulus packages allowed the authority temporary financial security, but it was only a couple of years before the underlying financial crisis made itself known again.
In November, Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) shifted $153 million of the state’s allocation of federal highway funds toward SEPTA in order to avoid cuts that had been announced a few months earlier. At the time, however, local and state leaders both stressed that this was a temporary measure and would perhaps set the transit agency up for an even more dramatic fiscal cliff if the state did not find a long-term funding source.
The cuts announced earlier this month reflect that possibility. Still, the severity of the service reduction surprised many, including Swarthmore’s state representative, Jennifer O’Mara (D-HD 165). In a phone interview with The Phoenix, she emphasized, “Taking out five regional rail lines eliminates the ability of 130,000 riders from the suburbs into the city. It impacts 80,000 workers who are in the key card program that their employer provides.”
O’Mara also thinks the agency’s financial struggles are a problem that goes deeper than an unfortunate few years of politics. “SEPTA is one of the largest transit systems in this country with one of the smallest investments from their home state,” she said. “[It] just got to a point where they could no longer make small changes and survive.”
Assistant Professor of Art Sony Devabhaktuni, an architect and writer who researches “how the street, as a material overlay of infrastructural systems, plays a role in civic life,” wrote in an email to The Phoenix that SEPTA’s financial situation has been complicated by ridership problems coming from lingering changes from the pandemic in how people live and work. “Cuts in lines and frequency would create a self-fulfilling spiral to an already fragile system,” he said.
The announced budget, if enacted as is, would eliminate 32 bus routes, shorten sixteen more, initiate a hiring freeze for an already-understaffed agency, and raise fares by over 20%, all starting in August. Later in the year, the five regional rail lines that use tracks SEPTA leases from Amtrak for $60 million every year – Paoli/Thorndale (known for its history as the Main Line), Wilmington/Newark, Trenton, Chestnut Hill West, and Cynwyd – would be eliminated. Notably, all thirteen regional rail lines, including the Media/Wawa line that Swarthmore station is on, would have reduced service and would lose any service after 9 p.m.
SEPTA warned of overcrowding on its buses, shuttles, and trolleys, 6,500 access trips shifting to county providers, and 55,000 students and children losing reliable transportation if the budget is enacted. The budget reads, “With reduced service, buses and trains will become overcrowded and unreliable – quickly pushing people to drive more – fueling gridlock and worse quality of life.”
Swarthmore’s state senator, Tim Kearney (D-SD 26), feels that while SEPTA intentionally announced the worst-case scenario in order to make the best case for funding, any of these cuts would disproportionately harm the region’s low-income people. “As usual, these kinds of cuts would affect the people who can least afford it, and the people who don’t necessarily have standing [to advocate against it],” he said, citing impacts of cuts like the Wilmington regional rail line as “disastrous” for the people of Chester.
Devabhaktuni highlighted these socioeconomic tensions, arguing that “the region is in better shape economically than it has been for some years, in terms of a number of indicators including inequality and growth.” He continued, “I think the larger issue is that funding for SEPTA comes from a deeply divided state government, one part of which is seemingly happy to see the region decline as a means to gain electoral predominance.”
Kearney highlighted the importance of the regional rail station at the base of Swarthmore’s campus to the college and town community. Referencing the original informal placement of stations along the line, he shared that Parrish Hall was built to be on axis with the station. “The train was first before the college, and the college was before the town,” he said.
For the last two years, however, the importance of the regional rail to Swarthmore has grown after the college was the first to sign up for SEPTA’s Key Advantage UPass Program. The initiative provides students with access cards good for up to 240 rides on any SEPTA transit service every month, as well as a very reduced rate for faculty and staff to buy the cards. Recent numbers provided to The Phoenix by Director of Campus Services Anthony Condo show that close to 70% of Swarthmore students use the cards, collectively averaging around 8,000 rides every month during the academic year. Additionally, over 150 college employees are using the cards for around 4,000 rides in many academic year months.
While college community members have always connected to the Philadelphia region in a variety of ways, the UPass program’s high usage has certainly strengthened the relationship. Devabhaktuni highlighted the ways that SEPTA has influenced the development of many communities in the region, including how regional rail access was a major selling point for the controversial 110 Park development in Swarthmore. With the announced cuts, he says, “All of the homes and apartments near stations will face a drop in value as regional rail no longer poses a viable and reliable alternative.”
The proposed 9 p.m. service shutoff would therefore have an especially jarring effect of isolating Swarthmore from the resources of Philadelphia that many have gotten used to. The Swarthmore community is gearing up for the political fight to win funding in this summer’s state budget negotiations.
Associate Vice President for Campus Services Anthony Coschignano spoke at a rally last week at the Chester Transportation Center with Kearney, O’Mara, and other leaders from around the region to advocate for funding. “SEPTA makes living, learning, and working in this region possible. It is not just transit; it connects us to each other. The proposed cuts would be more than devastating. They would bring us to a literal standstill. I join others here today in urgently calling for SEPTA to receive the funding it needs to continue delivering on its mission,” he said at the rally.
In an email to The Phoenix, Coschignano elaborated: “Many members of our community work late, attend evening classes, or participate in student organizations and events that extend past 9 p.m.” He continued, “We understand that SEPTA is facing funding challenges, but cuts like this would create real challenges in people’s daily lives. That is why we oppose the proposed closure and why we stand with SEPTA in their efforts to secure the funding necessary to avoid these sorts of reductions in service. We hope decision-makers recognize what’s at stake and commit to keeping our transit system strong and fully operational.”
Swarthmore’s elected representatives, Kearney and O’Mara, are also getting ready for budget negotiations in their respective chambers. They both told The Phoenix that they are strong supporters of Governor Shapiro’s proposal to allocate 1.75% more ($292.5 million) of the commonwealth’s yearly sales tax revenue to mass transit agencies all over the state. As the largest mass transit agency in Pennsylvania, SEPTA would receive $161 million in new yearly funding, an amount that former SEPTA CEO and General Manager Leslie Richards shared last year would allow the agency to stave off cuts, but is less than its $213 million deficit. Shapiro’s plan passed the Democratic-controlled House in three different forms last year, but stalled in the Senate, where Republicans hold a majority.
O’Mara says the governor’s proposal is the ideal funding source because it gives all the mass transit agencies around the state what they need without raising taxes. “It’s really important that we continue to remind our colleagues that we’re not talking about just funding SEPTA. We are talking about funding transit in 67 counties in the Commonwealth,” she said.
Passing the plan through the Senate this year will again be a difficult task. While legislative Democrats seem to be already united behind it, Kearney and O’Mara say they’re hoping the economic impacts of threatened lost coverage will chip away at conservative resistance. Citing the importance of having public transportation for Philadelphia’s plans to host parts of 2026’s FIFA World Cup, the MLB All-Star Game, and the United States Semiquincentennial, as well as the need for public transit by the region’s universities, businesses, and organizations, O’Mara thinks a broad coalition can be built around public transportation.
“Last week, I went to City Hall to speak at a press conference, and one of the speakers said, ‘it isn’t often that the Democratic Socialists of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce agree, but this is one where they both agree.’”
Kearney, who sits on the Senate’s transportation committee, was quick to highlight that while SEPTA service only covers around 5% of the state, about half of the state’s revenue comes from the Philadelphia region. “It’s really emblematic of the type of politics that happens in Harrisburg all the time, where people in Harrisburg forget about how much money comes out of the Philadelphia region into, you know, Harrisburg,” he said.
That is only one of the narratives surrounding SEPTA that Kearney sees as misleading. In response to people who question why public transit has to be subsidized instead of paying for itself, he says, “the answer [to them], of course, is that we subsidize roads and bridges and automobile highways to a much, much greater extent than we subsidize any kind of mass transit.” He continued, “the amount of state and federal money that goes into airports and that goes into highways is just kind of mind boggling.” Despite these political biases against public transportation, Kearney believes that SEPTA is “the envy of so many other big cities.”
Devabhaktuni agreed with this sentiment, saying that SEPTA stands out because of its rare multi-modal coverage. “A thriving system would be one that could sustain high frequencies throughout the day that allow for seamless and reliable movement throughout the region,” he clarified. “Without that, it is hard to convince people who have the luxury to drive to make the switch.”
Both Kearney and O’Mara feel that the surprising 2024 election of Republican Joe Picozzi to represent parts of Northeast Philadelphia in the state house might help the city’s interests make inroads within their party’s caucus. “There’s obviously the Republicans and Democrats, but there’s also east and west. There’s a Philadelphia-versus-the-rest kind of thing,” says Kearney, adding that some Democrats from outside the region have not always been reliably in favor of transit funding. That’s changed in recent years, however, as SEPTA’s fiscal cliff has gained a higher profile, and mass transit in other Pennsylvania cities are feeling similar challenges.
The budget negotiation process in Harrisburg is set to finish by the end of June, though Kearney is skeptical of the chances of it being finished by then. Because these negotiations have already been taking place over the last few years, the trading pieces that could be used for a potential deal between the House and Senate have become clear. In the past, state Republicans have tried to leverage SEPTA funding for the party’s goals, like the regulation of skill games and more funding for roads and bridges.
Both O’Mara and Kearney referenced their party’s consistent openness to considering these kinds of deals. “They have been unable in the Senate to pass a proposal and send it to the house,” O’Mara remarked. What these Democrats say they are not willing to consider, however, is a funding source that won’t provide stability to SEPTA. “I think keeping it stable is going to allow it to grow,” O’Mara said, citing the agency’s paused expansion plans and the likelihood that the current upward trend in ridership will end if the service cuts are realized.
“Rather than facing yearly funding emergencies, there needs to be a commitment to funding public transit that can allow for long term planning and innovation in how SEPTA serves the region,” Devabhaktuni added.
Despite the complicated political situation, O’Mara and Kearney were optimistic that a funding deal could be achieved if a strong case for the importance of SEPTA is made.
In an interview last year with The Phoenix, O’Mara highlighted the larger socioeconomic dynamics at play when a Republican-controlled Senate sees funding for Philadelphia as unnecessary for the state. “It feels to me that the Senate has been unwilling to do this because it benefits Philadelphia, and they have this belief that Philly shouldn’t get more state funding,” she said at the time.Despite the legislative fight for funding taking place at the state level, SEPTA’s security is also being impacted by President Trump. The executive branch has threatened both Philadelphia and the commonwealth with the stoppage of billions of dollars of long-standing federal funding. If the Trump administration follows through on those threats, the seismic shifts would upend the budgets of both the city and commonwealth, rendering funding for SEPTA an even more difficult task.
