The Chamber of Commerce reacts to potential SEPTA cuts

SEPTA’s funding crisis and news of proposed service cuts and fare increases has riders speaking out about the huge impact this would have on commuters, but what about the impact on businesses?

With the budget deficit of more than $200 million dollars, there would be service cuts of 45% and fare increases of more than 20%.

“This is going to be detrimental to our city and to our region. We’re talking about how employees get to work, we’re talking about how students get to school, how patients get to healthcare…this is how our city accesses all of these things. And when we see SEPTA fail or fall we’re going to see a whole trickle down effect into our economy and to our city,” said Shannon Williams, Senior Vice President of Advocacy at The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia.

Williams mentioned that around 75,000 jobs could be lost because of these proposed cuts as well as major impacts to tourism and hospitality.

“SEPTA is not going to be able to run some of those special lines. We have 2026 coming up. We’re going to see hundreds and thousands of people coming into the city to celebrate FIFA and MLB and all of these things. They’re going to be looking towards public transportation to get them around,” said Williams.

SEPTA starts its new fiscal year on July 1st and the Chamber is doing everything possible to get everyone’s voices heard.

“We have a rally in Harrisburg on May 13th. It’s a transit rally that we’ll be hosting. We have to save SEPTA.”

For more information on The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, visit the website here.

For more on the proposed SEPTA cuts and how they could impact you, click here.