Memo from Montco: Deep SEPTA cuts would make the county less livable and prosperous
Elected leaders, college officials, and students gathered at the Bryn Mawr train station to talk about how SEPTA impacts Montgomery County's economic success.
Montgomery County is one of the richest in Pennsylvania, but if you look beyond the median household income data, it depends more on SEPTA than one might think.
Elected leaders, college officials, and students gathered Tuesday near the inbound platform of the Bryn Mawr regional rail station to talk about how SEPTA is woven into the life of the county, a big factor in its relative economic success — and to the futures of the thousands studying at the region’s colleges and universities.
“Public transit is like education. It’s an equalizer,“ said county commissioner Jamila H. Winder, of East Norriton.
She and her fellow commissioners and other community leaders urged state lawmakers to get moving and act to prevent drastic cuts in regional transit service.
Many students “work jobs, care for loved ones, and hustle every day — and SEPTA is how they do it,“ Winder said. ”Cutting service closes doors. It says, ‘If you can’t afford a car, you don’t get a shot.’ We cannot accept that.”
During the news conference, an occasional Paoli-Thorndale Line train screeched into the station. Paoli-Thorndale, which serves the Main Line, is one of five regional rail lines SEPTA has slated to eliminate without an increase in state aid to close a structural annual budget gap of $213 million.
“There’s a stereotype about the Regional Rail, and the Main Line especially, that we’re a bunch of yuppies who only take SEPTA because we can’t be bothered to gas up the Lexus,” said Olivia Loudon, a senior history major at Bryn Mawr College who wants to live and work in Philadelphia after graduation.
“SEPTA has changed my life,” said Loudon, who is from Columbus, Ohio, the largest city in the country with no rail transit. The train opened up the richness of Philadelphia to her.
Bryn Mawr was one of the first higher-education institutions to join SEPTA’s University Pass program, which provides reduced-cost travel passes to students.
One thousand students use their passes at least monthly, college president Wendy Cadge said. Bryn Mawr has 1,700 students.
Loudon said it’s important to fight for transit funding for all the people who need it — in the city and beyond.
“So I’m talking to my fellow Main Liners when I say it is time for you to get involved,” she said. “This is not an issue to be solved by just putting out yard signs. It requires calls, emails, letters. It requires us to be so loud that they can hear us all the way to Harrisburg.”
In April, SEPTA released its budget that said service would be cut by 45% in two stages, this fall and in January, unless state lawmakers increase subsidies to help it close a $213 million structural deficit in its operating budget.
Other transit systems are also in crisis. Pittsburgh’s Regional Transit Authority plans to cut service by more than 30%, for instance.
In his February budget address, Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed an additional $292.5 million annually for public transit across Pennsylvania for five years, financed by increasing its share of state sales tax revenue. SEPTA says it would initially get $165 million.
Last year, state Senate Republicans blocked Shapiro’s proposal for a smaller amount, $283 million annually in new state aid to public transit.
Montgomery County Community College is served by three SEPTA bus lines, and many students have long commutes, transferring between rail and buses to get to school, said Victoria L. Basteki-Perez, president of the college.
About 76% of MCCC’s 14,000 students are studying part time, Basteki-Perez said, and many balance college with work, family, and other responsibilities.
“Without reliable and affordable transit options, their ability to attend class, participate in clinicals and internships, and maintain employment becomes severely compromised, if not impossible,” she said.
Thomas DiBello, the only Republican on the three-member board of commissioners, said properly funding transit is a bipartisan issue.
“When you look at other cities’ public transit systems, they’re funded at much higher levels than SEPTA,” DiBello said. “That’s something we need to take into consideration. … We need to find solutions, we need to come together, we need to work with everyone” to improve transit funding.