Montco Commissioners Raise Alarm for SEPTA Funding, Possible Cuts
How much should Pennsylvania taxpayers be asked to pay to subsidize bus seats and rides on commuter rail?
For advocates of SEPTA on Tuesday, the answer was “more.”
The Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority claims it’s in a budget crisis and is threatening to cut service by 45 percent and raise fares by more than 20 percent unless it gets more state funding. One scenario includes shutting down five Regional Rail lines, including the Paoli/Thorndale line.
Montgomery County Commissioners held a press conference at the Bryn Mawr train station to urge the state to add to the $1 billion budgeted for fiscal year 2026. Add in federal funds and payments from local municipalities, and the system gets more $1.3 billion in subsidies each year.
When the DVJournal asked the amount of additional state money the county commissioners want for SEPTA, Commissioners Chairman Neil Makhija (D), who also serves on the SEPTA board, said the full increase that Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) has in his 2025 budget is $186 million.
Conner Descheemaker, coalition manager with Transit for All PA!, interjected, “$292 million is the investment the governor proposed.”
Makhija jokingly asked Descheemaker if he wanted to take the question.
“There’s a gap that remains,” said Makhija. “The hole is closer to the number Connor mentioned. If we fund the governor’s proposal, SEPTA can be creative. We’ve already found $30 million in savings across the board.”
But Makhija said the state should “dream bigger” when it comes to SEPTA spending, with the goal of providing a train each station every 15 minutes.
“If we had $100 million beyond that, that’s where we get to 15-minute service (and) we bring the regional rail to a place where we’re really planning for the future and building on that.”
Montgomery County Commissioners Jamila Winder (D) and Tom DiBello (R) also lent their voices to support SEPTA, as did the commissioners from Lower Merion.
SEPTA’s 2024 ridership was just over 256 million, which means taxpayers chipped in more than $5 per ride to help cover costs. The proposals offered on Tuesday would increase that even more.
Last year, Shapiro took $153 million in federal funds earmarked for roads and gave that as a bailout for SEPTA. The collar counties also gave SEPTA $22.95 million more. Then, on April 18, SEPTA announced a $213 million deficit and possible cuts in services and fare increases.
Asked if they supported Republican House minority Leader Jesse Topper’s bill calling for a private entity to take over SEPTA’s buses, Makhija shot it down.
“The formation of SEPTA began because seven different agencies went bankrupt that were private,” he said.
He also rejected the idea that riders should pay the cost of the services they use.
“As is the case around the country, public transit has to be public because there are so many beneficiaries, not just the people who are swiping the card to get on the train. The people who work at all the businesses those riders are getting to also benefit,” Makhija said.
“We can’t operate from a place that it’s the riders who pay their way. That’s not the case anywhere in the country for transit systems. We need a state investment on the order and magnitude we’re talking about.”
Bryn Mawr College President Wendy Cadge said an average of 1,000 Bryn Mawr students use their college-funded SEPTA pass each month, out of 1,750 students. Faculty and staff also use SEPTA to get to work and other places.
“I can safely say that Bryn Mawr College loves SEPTA,” she said. Students get to jobs and internships, she said. If the Bryn Mawr station closes, it will “make it much harder for our students and community partners to work together.”
Montgomery County Community College President Victoria Bastecki-Perez said the college trains the area’s workforce, including nurses and first responders, who are “essential to the vitality and well-being of our community.”
She said many students rely on trains and buses to get to their campuses in Pottstown and Blue Bell.
“For many of our students, SEPTA is more than just a transit system. It’s a lifeline,” she said. “It connects them to classes, their jobs, childcare, internships, and essential services, and ultimately the better life they are working so hard to build.”
“SEPTA just doesn’t move people,” Basticki-Perez added, “It moves dreams forward.”
Critics say the system is a money pit and that the steady call for more spending is a band-aid.
“SEPTA’s predictability is only outdone by its mismanagement and dreadful performance,” Nate Benefield and Andrew Holman of the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s free market think tank, wrote in a recent editorial.
Olivia Loudon, a Bryn Mawr student, said SEPTA is “part of the reason I chose Bryn Mawr.”
“There’s a stereotype about the regional rail and the Main Line, that we’re a bunch of yuppies who only take SEPTA because we can’t be bothered to gas up the Lexus. But that’s not true. We’re students. We’re teachers. We’re nurses, doctors, we’re business owners. We’re local people who want access to the city that we love and depend on so much.”
Descheemaker noted that in 2026, many events “of global import” will be held in Philadelphia and the region to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary, and the area will need its public transit system more than ever.
“There’s going to be hotel rooms booked in freakin’ Delaware for the FIFA World Cup!” he said.
