SEPTA’s future is now in Pennsylvania lawmakers’ hands after the transit agency’s board approved on June 26 a budget set to slash service and hike fares to fill a $213 million deficit unless an influx of state cash is delivered.
It’s part of an ongoing state budget fight in Harrisburg, as skeptics argue that roads and highways will need elevated investments, too, if public transportation gets a funding hike.
Delaware Valley leaders are pleading for action with the first wave of cuts just weeks away.
“SEPTA connects our residents to jobs, schools, medical appointments, and daily essentials,” said Delaware County Council Chair Monica Taylor, Ph.D., in a statement. “We need state leaders to recognize that this isn’t just a Philadelphia issue, it’s a regional one.”
But despite frustrations users may have with SEPTA’s reliability, cleanliness, and safety, it spends money more efficiently than other major transit agencies in the United States. It’s a line that SEPTA, which was sixth in total ridership of any U.S. transit agency in the first quarter of 2025, says repeatedly to show it deserves investment.
According to budget and ridership figures, SEPTA spent about $6.20 for every ride taken on its services in May. That’s about the same as New York City’s MTA’s cost for each ride on its systems in the first quarter of 2025.
But Alan Fisher, a Philadelphia transit advocate, in an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that the cost per ride is lower than Boston’s MBTA’s $9.03 and Chicago’s RTA’s $10.04. Fisher also estimates that SEPTA, for every $1 billion, moves more than 400,000 daily riders —a feat no other U.S. transit system can match.
SEPTA does lag its counterparts in other metrics. At about 75 percent of 2019 ridership, it has a better recovery rate from the pandemic than agencies in Chicago and Atlanta, but worse than those in New York and Miami.
And efficiency hasn’t translated into reliability. In January, only 81.8 percent of Regional Rail trains were on time, below SEPTA’s 90 percent target. New York’s Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North lines, which serve the city’s northern and eastern suburbs, were 97 percent and 98 percent on-time for the first two months of the year, respectively.
But SEPTA’s financial hardship is a shared trait.
Major U.S. transit systems are facing a combined $6 billion deficit, according to a report by Bloomberg in April. It’s primarily due to ridership failing to recover to pre-pandemic levels and the end of federal emergency aid following the health crisis.
For SEPTA, it’s also thanks to the lack of a consistent funding source. State law bans local counties from taxing residents to pay for it, and the state hasn’t had a reliable funding mechanism since a program to send tolls paid by Pennsylvania Turnpike drivers to public transportation ended in 2022.
However, in December, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties gave SEPTA an additional $22.95 million. At the same time, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) transferred $153 million in federal highway funds to the ailing transit agency. And every county, except Bucks, raised taxes on its residents.
SEPTA argues it has exhausted all other options. The agency says it has generated new revenues, such as ending free parking at Regional Rail stations, and worked to cut costs, including a freeze on management pay.
The only option left, it says, is to cut 45 percent of its service — including five Regional Rail lines — and raise fares by more than 20 percent. A Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission report said traffic on I-95, the Schuylkill Expressway, and U.S. Route 202 will increase thanks to cuts.
Neil Makhija, chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners and a member of the SEPTA Board, said in a statement that the fact SEPTA’s efficiency isn’t being matched with reliable funding shows the agency is “being failed,” rather than failing.
“Without a functioning transit system, millions of people who live, work, and go to school here will be stranded,” he said. “Every defunded train line means fewer customers for local businesses. Every canceled route means fewer employees who can get to work.”
While the narrow Democratic majority in the State House passed in a bipartisan vote — thanks primarily to Delaware Valley Republicans — Shapiro’s plan to increase the percentage of revenues from the state’s sales tax that go to public transit, its future in the Republican-controlled state Senate is unclear. Republican leadership argues that any increase in mass transit funding needs to be matched with better investment in infrastructure for cars, believing that rural residents would be left behind otherwise.
In that case, local Republicans may be key in bridging divides.
State Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Montgomery) in a statement to the DVJournal said SEPTA funding is just one piece of a very complicated budget debate that has already blown past a June 30 funding deadline.
“While SEPTA services are important to many who live and work in our region, Pennsylvania currently faces a multi-billion structural deficit that needs to be addressed,” Pennycuick said. “In addition to SEPTA funding, we also must address education funding and resources for our critical human services programs, among many other important programs.”
A representative for state Sen. Frank Farry (R-Bucks), who has proposed to fund public transit by instituting a sales tax on skill games, did not respond to a request for comment.
After years of warnings, Chester County Board of Commissioners Chair Josh Maxwell said in an interview he wasn’t surprised when SEPTA announced cuts. That doesn’t mean he’s not worried about their consequences.
He called the debate in Harrisburg over funding “silly,” but said he’s been reaching out to state Republicans, urging them to take action and trying to listen to what they need in exchange for funding SEPTA. Maxwell declined to give details about the private conversations he’s had.
However, despite the fight, he remains hopeful that a solution will be found when a budget deal is announced.
“I do think this is getting enough attention,” Maxwell said, “and it’s so important in a bipartisan way in southeast Pennsylvania that it will eventually get done.”