Riders call SEPTA essential to their lives and plead for state funding

Buses trains and trolleys make their lives realizable They specifically bought their homes near transit lines If their local routes stop operating they ll have to buy a second car or move to a different neighborhood And they re demanding that the state Senate give SEPTA the funding it necessities to avoid catastrophic cuts Those were selected of the messages that riders and transit advocates repeated over and over at a SEPTA constituents hearing Monday the first of several the agency is holding as it advances a plan to shut down dozens of routes and sharply hike fares Lauren Montgomery a volunteer services supervisor at Children s Hospital of Philadelphia announced the majority of her coworkers ride transit to work and it would be impossible for them all to drive and find parking instead Patients are also scared about the prospect of not being able to access healing she commented They talk to us They ask us what they re going to do Will their families be able to come to them Are they going to miss appointments she declared So I m not being dramatic when I say that this is a life-or-death situation Lauren Montgomery who works at CHOP spoke at a SEPTA budget hearing May Meir Rinde Billy Penn Northern Liberties resident Tyler Combs announced he doesn t have a car and he and his partner depend on transit to get to critical medical professional s appointments games at the South Philly stadiums and Center City entertainment Shutting down routes will force me to cut back on attending the plays musicals and orchestral performances I love seeing on the Avenue of the Arts because without reliable buses or night system on the L or BSL I won t be able to get home he mentioned SEPTA cuts will kill business and they will kill values A few speakers like retiree Corine Acosta were practically in tears as they narrated SEPTA s board and executives how much they depend on the transit authority s services That s the only way we could get around I can t even go nowhere no more because my arthritis is so bad and I have to get on SEPTA even to go to the hospital stated Acosta who lives in Center City Now they want to cut you It s not right They re forgetting what this city is about and what this city has been doing for years A greatly diminished system SEPTA s interim general manager Scott Sauer and other executives explained at the hearing s start that the agency faces a million annual deficit which they attributed to acute inflationary pressures and the end of federal pandemic relief aid last year For example SEPTA s electricity costs have jumped since a year earlier and the cost of regulatory-required paratransit services for disabled riders increased budget director Erik Johanson noted SEPTA is also spending substantially more on police and cleaners to boost customer satisfaction and post-pandemic ridership recovery he commented At the same time it has instituted austerity and revenue measures like partial hiring and wage freezes new parking lot fees and a fare hike in December which have helped reduce its structural deficit from million last year Any further savings will require function cuts Johanson announced SEPTA executives listened to a speaker at a SEPTA budget hearing May Meir Rinde Billy Penn Starting this August the budget plan would initially eliminate bus routes shorten others and reduce institution on the other lines Fares would be increased another leading to a projected drop in ridership In January SEPTA would shut down more bus routes the B Broad-Ridge Spur subway line and five Regional Rail lines Cynwyd Chestnut Hill West Paoli Thorndale Trenton and Wilmington Newark The T and G trolleys would become bus lines and the whole system would stop running after p m every night Remaining riders will experience a greatly diminished system overcrowded buses and trains with customers regularly being passed up Those that abandon the transit system and choose to drive will experience gridlocked roads explained Jody Holton the authority s chief planning and strategy officer Northern Liberties resident Tyler Crumb left spoke at a SEPTA budget hearing May Meir Rinde Billy Penn Last year Gov Josh Shapiro prevented cuts by shifting chosen federal infrastructure funds to SEPTA but no urgency federal highway flex is available this year Johanson stated Shapiro and state House Democrats have proposed spending more sales tax revenue on mass transit statewide but Republicans who hold the Senate majority have so far rejected the idea citing the state s long-term structural budget deficit and the relative lack of transit in the rural and exurban districts they represent They have discussed creating a new tax on slot machine-like skill games which could potentially pay for more transit funding but have not yet introduced a bill Other legislators have proposed legalizing and taxing recreational marijuana sales imposing new fees on car rentals and ride-share services like Uber and allowing counties to levy new types of local taxes specifically for transportation To prevent organization cuts and fare increases any funding resolution would need to be in place by the start of the next fiscal year on July Visions of gridlock Various of the dozens of people who lined up to speak at the Monday morning hearing at SEPTA s Area Street headquarters or who phoned in to testify described the very specific passage conditions in their neighborhoods that make transit essential to their daily lives Bonita Tyes commented she began taking the bus regularly when she was a apprentice at West Chester University in Chester County because West Chester is a horrible place for cars She announced chosen students take buses to the school s Philadelphia campus and would struggle to continue their classes without them If people don t have a way to get here then what are they supposed to do she petitioned Are people just supposed to walk up Lancaster Avenue To take an Uber it s like to to go miles depending on the time of day It s like we re left without any alternative Bonita Tyes of West Chester testified at a SEPTA budget hearing May Meir Rinde Billy Penn UPenn associate professor Jennifer Ponce de Le n was among several speakers who announced she specifically chose her home because it s near transit in her matter the Chestnut Hill West line Like others she announced that without easy access to the train her family might have to buy a second car just one example of the numerous people who would be pushed onto using more and more automobiles which is incredibly ecologically devastating already with our air toxicity Our highways are already overwhelming and dangerous Will Tung a firefighter and transit activist who lives in Kingsessing revealed his family is utterly dependent on trolleys to get his daughter to school and his wife to work He also noted that the planned cuts are projected to consequence in more cars coming into the city daily That s as if every single person in Pittsburgh including the children all decided to get in the car their own car and drive in our streets in Philadelphia which is utterly devastating utterly devastating he reported So thank you SEPTA for doing what you can to kind of talk to legislators in Harrisburg to make sure that this death spiral doesn t happen Fears of a statewide impact The speakers acknowledged that while they were addressing their complaints and concerns to SEPTA s board and executives their real targets are the Republican lawmakers who they blame for not developing through the funding impasse Brandon Blue a fresh Temple grad who supporters with the th Square advocacy organization argued that legislators have long stymied SEPTA s efforts to expand its services and need to understand why the state would suffer if it is dismantled We can make this a group effort to stand up against the Senate Republicans that have held us back for decades but in order to do that we need to get more people involved in this issue he declared Advocates should come together and tell the Senate look as Philadelphians have a lot to offer and we are an vital city with a system that contributes significantly to Pennsylvania s market Brandon Blue spoke at a SEPTA budget hearing May Meir Rinde Billy Penn While the bulk of job losses and other economic distress expected to aftermath from the organization cuts would affect SEPTA s five-county region an economic analysis commissioned by the agency exposed that the state as a whole would see a combined million drop in several types of tax revenue In addition if there s no funding increase transit agencies in Pittsburgh and a number of other regions could be forced to make cuts in addition to SEPTA I blame a state Senate majority in Harrisburg who s decided to hold transit riders and operators and operators throughout the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hostage explained Combs the Northern Liberties resident These executives plenty of of whom have never ridden transit nor feel cost-burdened by their own car ownership would rather play political games with our lives and clog the arteries of Pennsylvania s economic activity to let our economic heart fail rather than fund SEPTA and other transit agencies Elected agents and other SEPTA supporters held a rally outside the agency s Domain Street headquarters May Meir Rinde Billy Penn The hearing was preceded by a rally on Domain Street in front of SEPTA s headquarters that was attended by city councilmembers and several state legislators from the agency s five-county region Another populace hearing on the budget was held Monday afternoon and more hearings are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at a m and p m SEPTA s board will hold a regular meeting Thursday at p m and will vote on the budget June The post Riders call SEPTA essential to their lives and plead for state funding appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY