What's Happening?
On April 10, 2025, SEPTA announced that they are facing a $213 million budget deficit,
which will force them to make
large, drastic cuts to the system.
​
This would include:
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Cutting service by 45 percent
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Raising fares 21.5 percent
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Eliminating 5 Regional Rail lines
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Eliminating 50 bus routes
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Closing 66 stations
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​No rail service after 9 pm
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This would completely eliminate the Paoli-Thorndale line.
Source: SEPTA
Regional Impacts from SEPTA Cuts
DAMAGES
PROPERTY VALUES
$19.5 billion loss in property values — an estimated $57,000 loss per home.
DAMAGES
TAX REVENUES
$11.4 billion​ loss in tax revenues (net present value) for the region and the state.
INCREASES
TRAFFIC
275,000 more cars on the road, increasing traffic congestion and vehicle pollution.
Why Is This Happening?
This crisis is the culmination of multiple long-running problems.
To understand what's happening today, we need to understand how we got here.
​
Throughout much of its life, SEPTA has dealt with:
INADEQUATE
FUNDING
Both the state and local governments have underfunded SEPTA, causing it to cut service frequency, defer critical maintenance, and even close stations.
​
SEPTA's current funding gap is $213 million.​
DEFERRED
MAINTENANCE
Deferring maintenance ultimately forces SEPTA to make difficult choices that impact service levels and long-term costs — and increases the risk that its infrastructure will fail.
​
SEPTA's unfunded upgrades amount to a whopping $4.86 billion.​
UNEVEN
RIDERSHIP
Infrequent service and deferred maintenance damage ridership — while local governments push regional growth out to areas without SEPTA service.
​
Fares only cover
10 percent of capital and operating budget.
SEPTA didn't create these problems. They inherited them.
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Historically, numerous private transit companies — like the Pennsylvania Railroad, which owned the line that now serves as the Paoli-Thorndale line — provided transit for the region.
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By the late 1950s, these private companies were struggling. Federal housing and highway policies undermined ridership at the same time these companies' costs were rising.
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To deal with this, they raised fares and deferred maintenance — a recurring theme in Southeastern Pennsylvania transit history — but this hurt ridership even more. The system began collapsing. ​
​
The state government created SEPTA in the 1960s to coordinate transit funding and ensure continued service. Eventually, SEPTA was tasked with running the system.
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This gifted SEPTA its greatest asset: a vast network of routes, rails, and infrastructure, built over the course of a century.
However, SEPTA's greatest asset has also been one of its greatest challenges.
The SEPTA network is massive and expensive.
Operating, maintaining, and improving this network would require policymakers to:
1. provide stable, permanent, recurring, sufficient funding.
2. manage regional growth in ways that boosted ridership.
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Instead, they often did the opposite.
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This is a story about both state and local governments.
It is a story about the failure to properly fund SEPTA and
the failure to manage growth in ways that strengthen SEPTA ridership.
​
This is a story about how we have weakened SEPTA over the course of decades — but also a story about how we can save and strengthen SEPTA going forward.
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And we can start that story with SEPTA's creator: the state government.
State Funding
SEPTA is heavily reliant on state funding, which provides 59 percent of its combined operating and capital budgets.
In 2022, the state let a dedicated funding source for SEPTA expire without replacing it. That funding had covered 12 percent of SEPTA's operating budget.
$27
million
SEPTA has already cut their budget by $27 million to help fill the funding gap — and still faces a $213 million deficit.
State law generally dictates how SEPTA is funded — and, to date, has prohibited a dedicated, local funding source.
​
As a result, SEPTA is heavily reliant on state funding and has spent much of its life sprinting from one funding crisis to the next.​
​​
"For most of its 60 years, SEPTA has had to scrounge for dollars every year in Harrisburg and Washington... [N]ew subsidies would come in for a few years, expire, then require a new round of legislation. Each time, SEPTA’s funding future was uncertain."
​
Without sufficient funding to run, maintain, and improve the system,
SEPTA has continually been forced to cut service and defer critical upgrades and repairs.
This has included shuttering Regional Rail stations and reducing service.​
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(These funding issues are compounded by other challenges outside of SEPTA's control.
For instance, Amtrak owns several routes on which SEPTA operates (including the Paoli-Thorndale line) — and charges SEPTA $65 million per year just to operate service on those routes.)
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The state provided temporary funding reprieves for SEPTA in 2007 and 2013,
boosting funding to public transit across the commonwealth, including SEPTA.
​​
But that funding deal expired in 2022, and the state has still not closed the gap —
one of the most important immediate causes of SEPTA's current funding crisis.
State Funding Solution
The state government should establish a permanent, sustainable, recurring funding source sufficient to provide frequent, reliable transit service.
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Local Funding
Local funding covers only about 7 percent of SEPTA's combined operating and capital budgets.
Regional Rail is a top transit service for Montgomery, Delaware, Chester, and Bucks Counties — yet they only provide 30 percent of its local operating funding.
33%
to
50%
SEPTA receives 1/3 to 1/2 the capital funding of peer systems —primarily due to insufficient local funding.
Local funding is also a major, long-running issue for SEPTA.
While the state prohibits dedicated local funding, it does not prohibit local funding entirely.
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County governments can, and do, help fund SEPTA — but Philadelphia has contributed the vast majority of local funding.
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The 'collar counties' contribute a relatively small portion of their annual budgets to SEPTA. While the 'collar counties' are major beneficiaries of Regional Rail service,
they only contribute about 30 percent of the local funding for Regional Rail operations.
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Peer transit systems receive substantial local funding, especially for infrastructure improvements and upgrades, known as 'capital improvements.'
SEPTA only receives about one-third to one-half of the capital funding its peers get. This is mostly due to insufficient local funding, which covers only 2 percent of SEPTA's capital budget.
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This pushes SEPTA further and further behind on maintaining and improving its infrastructure.
SEPTA currently has about $4.86 billion in unfunded capital needs, including $1 billion needed to continue replacing Regional Rail trains. To put this into perspective, a majority of Regional Rail trains are roughly half a century old. SEPTA cannot continue deferring these needs.
Local Funding Solution
The state government should allow a dedicated local funding source and the county governments should also increase their local transit funding.
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Local Planning
Most Regional Rail riders — 59 percent — walk to their train station.
Only 8 percent of the net new residents Montgomery County gained between 1970 and 2020 live near Regional Rail stations.
Today, fares only cover about 21 percent of the cost to operate the Paoli-Thorndale line.
Boroughs and townships also play a critical role in SEPTA's long-running crisis.
While these localities do not directly fund SEPTA, they can significantly influence ridership.
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People who live and work in walking distance from transit are likeliest to become regular riders.
SEPTA reports that 59 percent of Regional Rail riders get to the station by walking.
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Increasing ridership boosts fare revenue and supports more frequent service.
More frequent service, in turn, helps attract even more riders – and so on.
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​In contrast, lower ridership undermines the system.
SEPTA notes that "the cost to move a seat a mile on a regional rail train is actually lower than bus, but, over the course of the day, many of those seats are empty."
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Local governments control 'land use' and zoning, which determine what gets built where.
This gives them powerful tools for supporting SEPTA by planning for more people to live and work near stations, a concept known as 'transit-oriented development,' or 'TOD.'
(Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission)
(American Planning Association)
SEPTA
SAYS:
DVRPC
SAYS:
APA
SAYS:
"The underlying demand for SEPTA service is closely related to land use and is largely concentrated on and around existing and inactive rail lines in Philadelphia and the suburban counties."
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Translation:
Allowing more people to live and work near transit (land use) is an important factor in increasing the number of SEPTA riders (demand).
“Faced with decreasing levels of public funding that can jeopardize operating and capital programs, transit agencies are increasingly seeking to collaborate with a broad range of stakeholders to help achieve transit-supportive land use and development outcomes near their stations.”
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Translation:
Increasing ridership is especially important today, given insufficient state and local funding.
​“Most TOD and transit policy experts see a symbiotic relationship between successful transit and successful TOD. In other words, development patterns and densities affect transit ridership, just as transit service characteristics influence development demand and potential.”
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Translation:
Planning for growth around stations (TOD) supports successful transit.
Instead of planning to add housing and jobs near transit stations, many local governments have often done the opposite: pushing growth out to areas without any SEPTA service.
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For instance, Montgomery County grew by over 230,000 net new residents between 1970 and 2020 — but only about 8 percent of those net new residents live near Regional Rail stations.​
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The lack of riders costs SEPTA in lost fare revenues, undermining service:
​​Today, fares only cover about 21 percent of the cost to operate the Paoli-Thorndale line.​
​​​
Additionally, people in areas without SEPTA service — and their elected officials in state government — are often less willing to support funding SEPTA. As these farther-flung areas grow in population, it can become harder for the state government to agree on SEPTA funding.
Local Planning Solution
More SEPTA riders means more SEPTA fares and more SEPTA voters. Local governments should plan for more people to live and work in walking distance of stations.
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What Can We Do?
STATE:
COUNTY:
LOCAL:
Contact your state leaders to ask that they establish permanent, recurring, sustainable funding for SEPTA.
Click here to write to your state elected officials.
Contact your county leaders to ask that they significantly boost their SEPTA funding.​
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Click below for your county:
Follow your local government's planning efforts and ask your local elected officials to support transit-oriented planning near SEPTA stations.
There is no 'silver bullet.'
It will take all of us to build a stronger SEPTA.
Learn More!
Click below for more information.