Canvassers have a message for Bucks County SEPTA riders: It’s not too late to save your train
SEPTA is a few weeks from cutting 20% of its service and raising fares 21% as Harrisburg leaders negotiate state budget.
The canvassing team spread out on the Woodbourne station platform, the better to grab the maximum number of people waiting for a train to the city on SEPTA’s West Trenton line.
Message: Help save your ride. It’s not too late.
Transit Forward Philadelphia campaigners worked six West Trenton line Regional Rail stations Wednesday, encouraging riders to ask their state senators to pass a state budget that includes new funding for SEPTA.
Lisa Ritacco took the paper offered by the Transit Forward Philadelphia campaigners and said she would contact State Sen. Frank Farry (R., Bucks).
Without state money, SEPTA plans to launch a first round of service cuts in August — and raise fares by 21.5%.
There would be two hours between trains on the West Trenton line rather than the current one hour for parts of the day. The nearby Trenton Regional Rail line would eventually be eliminated.
“I guess I’d just have to deal with it, right?” said Ritacco, 45, an executive assistant at Comcast. She’s not yet sure how, exactly.
Most Comcast employees have to work in the company’s Center City office four days a week. Ritacco said she hoped management would make “allowances” in the event of severe SEPTA cuts.
“This does not have to happen,” said Stephen Bronskill, coalition manager for Transit Forward Philadelphia, which advocates for better transit service. “The legislature can act, and we can avoid it.”
» READ MORE: SEPTA preparations
Some 150 volunteers from the group have been buttonholing SEPTA riders on buses, subways, and commuter trains since May.
Other pro-transit organizations in the Philadelphia region have joined the effort.
Transit for All PA!, a statewide coalition that includes the Philadelphia group, has been staging rallies and lobbying days in Harrisburg for several months. It has also organized activists in other regions where transit systems are in trouble, such as Pittsburgh, the Lehigh Valley, and McKean County, one of six rural north-central Pennsylvania counties served by the Area Transportation Authority.
Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed a $292 million yearly bump for transit systems over five years, which passed the House. Currently House Democratic leaders, Senate Republican leaders, and the Shapiro administration are negotiating the entire state budget.
Both Farry and Sen. Joe Picozzi (R., Philadelphia) have said they support more funding for SEPTA.
The transit agency says a first round of service cuts will take effect Aug. 24 if the budget isn’t resolved.
“Regardless of party, people want good services and functional governance, which includes getting to a budget agreement,” said Natasha Tabachnikoff, one of the canvassers at Woodbourne.
She takes the 31 bus from her home in the Haverford section of West Philly, then catches the Trenton line to her job at a nonprofit in the New Jersey capital.
Amtrak could be an option. “In a real pinch, you can take the River Line to Camden,” Tabachnikoff said. ”It takes an hour and a half to get home."
West Trenton had 7,253 average weekday riders in 2024, according to SEPTA numbers, ranking fifth among the 13 Regional Rail services.
“Transit is essential to me as a college student without a car, but so many other people would lose jobs, or access to medical care,” said Alexander Martin, a rising senior at Drexel University majoring in philosophy, politics and economics. He was canvassing at the Trevose station.
Helena Gallant, a transportation advocate for older people at the nonprofit CARIE, said the clients she works with consider service cuts “everything from mildly inconvenient to devastating.”
That’s from seniors who use buses, trains, and trolleys as well as the shared-ride program. For those rides, fares will rise from $4.25 to $5.75, a hardship for some, on top of long delays for scheduling service because of a driver shortage.
She has been working with Transit Forward Philadelphia to advocate for funding.
“People on the ground are the ones making things happen,” Gallant said. “That’s where my hope lies.”