Mayor Cherelle Parker says the city will continue subsidized SEPTA fare programs following criticism of proposed funding reductions

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has abandoned a proposal to eliminate a program that subsidizes SEPTA fares for low-income Philadelphians, and has vowed to preserve a separate program that covers fares for city employees, the administration announced Wednesday following criticism of provisions of her $6.7 billion proposal for the next city budget that reduced funding levels for the transit benefits.

Parker last month proposed eliminating the Zero Fare program, which provides SEPTA access for about 25,000 Philadelphians living in poverty. She also proposed cutting funding for the Key Advantage program, which covers fares for about 15,000 city employees, from $9 million to $5 million, but the administration has maintained that the program would still offer the same level of service to municipal workers at a lower cost.

» READ MORE: Mayor Parker wants to defund a program that provides free transit passes for low-income people

After City Council members and advocates for the cash-strapped transit agency criticized those moves, Managing Director Adam K. Thiel said Wednesday that the programs would be preserved.

“I’m pleased to announce that Mayor Parker will be making an announcement later today regarding the continuation of the SEPTA Key Advantage program for city employees,” Thiel said at a Council budget hearing Wednesday morning. “Additionally, Mayor Parker will be announcing the city is in discussions with SEPTA to extend the SEPTA Zero Fare pilot through fiscal year 2026.”

The announcement means that the administration will continue with its proposal to fund Key Advantage while offering the same level of service, and is negotiating with SEPTA over the cost of continuing Zero Fare, Finance Director Rob Dubow said. The latter will require an amendment to the mayor’s budget proposal legislation.

“We have kept our word to our workforce, and SEPTA Key Advantage will continue,” Parker said in a statement. “It’s an important benefit for our city’s municipal workforce.”

Additionally, Parker’s office said the administration “is in discussions with SEPTA to extend the Zero Fare Pilot through Fiscal Year 2026,” which begins July 1.

The city and the transit agency reached an agreement Tuesday that will allow the city to continue offering Key Advantage at the current level with the equivalent of a payment plan.

“There is no special deal here. SEPTA is getting paid in full,” said Erik Johanson, the transit agency’s senior director of budgets. “We’re just being flexible.”

The city increased its local contribution to SEPTA beyond the required amount last year at the governor’s request. It will be able to use interest earned on its payment — held in a SEPTA account and charged quarterly — to make up the $4 million difference, Johanson said.

Michael Carroll, Parker’s deputy managing director for transportation and infrastructure, said Wednesday that the city had initiated talks with SEPTA to preserve Zero Fare before the public backlash over the funding cut in Parker’s budget proposal.

After Thiel’s announcement, Council President Kenyatta Johnson praised Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke for championing the programs.

“Might be Christmas in April already,” O’Rourke said following the administration’s announcement.

In response to Parker’s initial budget proposal, O’Rourke announced plans to introduce legislation to require that the city dedicate funding for Zero Fare.

O’Rourke will follow through with the legislation to establish the Philadelphia Transit Access Fund despite the administration’s announcement, a spokesperson said.

Discussions continue between the administration and SEPTA over a way to keep the Zero Fare program going. “Our goal is the same as the city’s,” SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said. “We want to work to find a solution.”

Both Zero Fare and Key Advantage were launched late in former Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration. Following Parker’s proposal, Kenney published an op-ed in The Inquirer calling on the city to continue funding Zero Fare. Former mayors almost never comment critically on their successors’ policies, and Kenney’s piece was particularly unusual given how recently he left office.

“Through this investment, we supported working families, their children, and our transit system,” Kenney wrote. “Eliminating the free transit program now would only mean fewer people able to work, more people relying on public assistance, and an even more strained local economy.”

The Zero Fare program provides SEPTA passes for people living at or near the federal poverty line. For 2025, that is $15,650 for an individual and $32,150 for a family of four.

Zero Fare participants had taken about 6.6 million trips on SEPTA from when the program started in the late summer of 2023 through mid-March, SEPTA has said. In the last three months of 2024, pass holders took an average of 100,000 trips a week.