SEPTA can’t afford some infrastructure projects, including 22 that would help people with mobility issues, the agency says

Disappearing bus routes, five fewer Regional Rail lines, subway and commuter trains not running — these and other possible SEPTA service cuts have dominated discussion of the transit authority’s latest budget problems.

But SEPTA is also squeezed on the capital side of the ledger.

Its draft spending plan would defer or scale back 44 planned infrastructure projects because of a $3 billion gap between the costs of the work and available funding.

“Major construction cost increases in our industry are forcing us to defer projects,” Brian McFadden, director of capital budgets for SEPTA, said in an interview.

Riders might not notice some of the delayed projects, but the largest single category of them are modifications to make stations accessible to people with disabilities and mobility challenges.

More than 20 such Americans with Disabilities Act projects costing about $556 million and scheduled over the next 12 years will be deferred.

The work was scheduled for Regional Rail Stations, transportation centers, a station on the Norristown High Speed Line, as well as several stops on the Broad Street Line.

“This is not what we want to do. We have tremendous needs on the ADA accessibility front throughout our system,” McFadden said.

Officials said the accessibility projects can be postponed more readily than safety-related ones. The capital budget is tweaked yearly, and projects can be added back, they said.

Overall, SEPTA plans to save $1.8 billion by pausing projects and reducing the scope of others, and to borrow $1.2 billion by issuing bonds, beginning in 2028. That will keep some urgent projects moving forward.

SEPTA schedules and funds major infrastructure projects in 12-year time periods, paying installments toward the work, much of which takes several years.

Overdue investments to replace 40- and 50-year-old railcar fleets can no longer be delayed, and that needs to be funded to keep them on track.

The transit system has ordered new cars for the Market-Frankford Line, an urgent need. The El cars are old and prone to breaking down. It also has new trolleys in the pipeline and has allocated money to begin upgrading tracks and building new, ADA-accessible trolley stations that will eventually replace corner stops.

To prepare for the new vehicles, other infrastructure has to be installed, including a $400 million overhaul of the MFL’s signal system.

SEPTA also points out that it gets less money for infrastructure projects from local governments in its service area than other systems, such as Boston’s, because Pennsylvania law doesn’t allow counties the option to levy a dedicated fee or tax for transit.

Costs for construction of transportation projects has risen about 62% over the past four years, according to the United States Department of Transportation’s statistics bureau. The calculations were based on highway projects, but transit work is rising along with them.

Of course, materials and wages are more expensive, but there’s a surprising factor in high costs: the federal infrastructure act.

It poured so much money into roads, bridges, and transit that contractors have been stretched thin — a situation that Erik Johanson, SEPTA’s director of budgets and infrastructure, calls “oversaturation.”

“We’re all competing against each other for those vendors, so we’re seeing fewer competitive bids and higher prices,” McFadden said.

Not that they are complaining about the infrastructure spending. It’s helped transit agencies and highway departments alike.

The infrastructure law is scheduled to expire next year, so SEPTA officials say they expect less money as funds are spent down.