Philadelphia’s mass transit cuts foreshadow possible similar moves by other agencies across US

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Commuters and students in Philadelphia woke up earlier on Monday and scrambled to avoid being late as they navigated service reductions that the region’s public transit agency has called more drastic than any undertaken by a major transit agency in the United States.

The cuts that took effect on the first day of the school year in the nation’s sixth-most populous city could herald a wave of similar moves by major transit agencies around the U.S. as they struggle with rising costs and lagging ridership. Cutbacks are also on the table at transit agencies in Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco and Pittsburgh.

In many places, funding has not kept up with inflationary increases while ridership is still lagging pre-pandemic levels after many people had their routines disrupted by COVID-19.

Some 52,000 public school students in Philadelphia use transit to get to school. Students and commuters talked of needing to get up much earlier to make time for a longer commute time.

Zairean Wills, a sophomore at Roxborough High School, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that she woke up at 6 a.m., an hour earlier because of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority cuts.

“It’s fine because I get more time with my friends, but it sucks that I have to wake up earlier for no reason,” Wills said while waiting in a line of kids at Wissahickon Transportation Center.

She said she will probably need her dad to take her to school in the winter to avoid weather delays making her late to school.

The school district has said it will not punish students who are late because of SEPTA route changes, when they have a note from a parent or guardian.

Alayah Brown told the Inquirer that she walked to the 69th Street Transportation Center because most of the buses in her neighborhood were eliminated. She was commuting on her first day of work as a teaching assistant at an elementary school in neighboring Delaware County, but she watched her bus leave the transportation center while she was waiting at a red light to cross the street.

“I’m very mad,” Brown said. “I just paid $50 for an Uber and I’ll still be almost late.”

All told, SEPTA has warned that it will cut half its services by Jan. 1 and be unable to provide enhanced service for major tourist events next year. Those include FIFA World Cup matches in Philadelphia, events surrounding the celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday, Major League Baseball’s all-star game, the PGA Championship and NCAA March Madness games.

SEPTA has said its cuts this week amount to a 20% across-the-board service reduction to deal with a deficit of more than $200 million. That includes eliminating bus routes with lower ridership and reducing the frequency of bus, trolley and rail services across the region.

It plans to raise fares by 21.5% on Sept. 1 for the system’s approximately 800,000 daily riders. A weekday ride would rise from $2.50 to $2.90 on a bus, train or trolley, it said.

The agency plans to impose a hiring freeze and then, on Jan. 1, carry out additional service cuts that would mean it will have eliminated half its current services. That would include cutting more regional rail and bus routes and imposing a 9 p.m. curfew on rail services, some of which go as late as 1:30 a.m. currently.

The Chicago Transit Authority is considering shutting down four of eight elevated train lines and 74 of 127 bus routes under the worst-case scenario as it figures out how to plug a $770 million budget hole.

Pittsburgh Regional Transit is considering a 35% service reduction to help close what it calls a roughly $100 million deficit this year. That could include eliminating 45 bus routes and reducing 54 others and eliminating one of three light rail lines.

The San Francisco-area Bay Area Rapid Transit said it will raise fares on Jan. 1 and is using hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency state aid to avoid service cuts.

However, it projects that it will face ongoing deficits ranging from $350 million to $400 million in the ensuing years that it called a “fiscal cliff” that could mean “dire and widespread impacts on the Bay Area’s greater transportation network.”

Dallas Area Rapid Transit is considering what cuts to make as it looks to refund nearly $43 million in revenue to other cities.