Real talk from SEPTA insiders: Fears of service cuts, job loss, and how to fix the broken transit system

A chartered bus zoomed toward Harrisburg on Tuesday filled with fired-up members of Transport Workers Union Local 234 ready to yell and chant in the Capitol Rotunda. Their goal: convince elected officials to give more money to SEPTA and other public transit systems.

Their pleading has become a standing appointment during the legislature’s last few budget seasons, and the outcome seems as uncertain as ever.

SEPTA proposes slashing nearly half its service to close a structural operating deficit of $213 million a year, a move that likely would cripple the regional transit system as it becomes harder to use and sheds riders — unless it gets a reliable source of new dollars from the state.

Some of the frontline workers headed down the Pennsylvania Turnpike wondered about what could happen to the SEPTA jobs they had always considered secure.

“It’s a decent, stable middle-class job for a lot of people,” said Chris Conley, 42, a SEPTA lineman, and he is proud to provide a necessary public service. “I am getting more concerned about the stability of the system, not only for our own jobs, but for the region.”

In a $2.6 billion proposed budget for operations and capital projects, up to 55 bus routes would be eliminated, five Regional Rail lines shut down, and frequency of service reduced on those that remain. That’s the worst-case scenario. Those cuts would occur in two phases, this fall and on Jan. 1.

“All the new guys would get laid off,” said Bill Maxwell, 42, a diesel mechanic at the Frankford depot with 16 years of service. After one year on the job, TWU Local 234 members are protected by a no-layoff cause in their labor contract.

“Our work could get cut back,” Maxwell continued. “Maybe they’d close some shops and merge them, but really I have no idea what would happen. I’ve never been in this situation.”

Conversation was low in the chartered bus, with some soft rock on the sound system, bottled water in the coolers, and boxes of Herr’s chips. A tray of hoagies for the ride home was stashed somewhere.

Once past the stop-and-go traffic of the Vine and the Schuylkill — a hint that it could be even worse on local expressways if SEPTA cuts service — the road opened up.

Like employees anywhere who know an organization from the inside out, the TWU members had some thoughts.

Someone mentioned a $50 million time-card system that has not been activated, or the well-documented and expensive problems with the Key Card system over the years, with a new contract recently awarded to update it. And there was a consensus in the seats that SEPTA is top-heavy with management.

“They’re constantly throwing money out the window,” said Joe Courtney, one of two SEPTA roofers who take care of Regional Rail stations, depots, and all the vast property holdings of the transit agency. “How can you tell the funders that you need more?”

In his view, SEPTA hires too many consultants, many of whom are retired from the system, to back up outside management hires who don’t have enough experience in the specialized world of transit.

“They used to promote from within, people could work their way up the ranks, and they knew what they were doing,” Courtney said.

He spoke well of interim general manager Scott Sauer, who began his SEPTA career as an operator.

“Me and management don’t always get along, but Scott Sauer really cares about the system and the riders,” said Courtney, of Pottstown, who has worked for the agency 24 years.

He thinks it would be a good idea for a bipartisan legislative oversight committee to watch over SEPTA’s spending. The state might be more willing to fund it, he said.

Barry Paul started at SEPTA when he was 20, as a mechanic’s helper in a bus depot.

“I wanted to get my foot in the door. It’s a good career,” Paul, 54, said. Now he works with underground power feeds for lighting on the SEPTA system and the subway third rails.

Last year, state Senate Republicans blocked Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal to pump $283 million annually in new state aid to public transit by increasing its share of sales tax revenue. That would have brought about $161 million to SEPTA.

Overall, the increased sales tax share would add $292.5 million annually for mass transit across the state, the Shapiro administration says, an amount estimated to grow to $330 million by the 2029-30 fiscal year.

The transit agency has cut costs by at least $37 million over the last 18 months and raised fares by 7.5% last year. Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) has acknowledged that SEPTA has made progress, but he has been unwilling to tap the sales tax.

Negotiations have not begun in earnest, but two bills to tax so-called skill games — slot machine look-alikes in bars, convenience stores, and bodegas — could provide additional revenue sources.

Despite the doomsday scenarios that SEPTA has floated, Maxwell is hopeful the state will come through with something.

For one thing, Philadelphia is hosting FIFA World Cup soccer, the 250th U.S. birthday, and other big events like MLB‘s All-Star Game next year.

Maxwell cannot imagine political leaders are going to want the city and state to be embarrassed on the world stage — or to lose out on an expected economic boost for the region from millions of visitors that will generate more tax revenue for the state.

“They’re just not going to let SEPTA shut down, or put a Band-Aid on it and wind up in the same situation again,” he said.

The TWU contingent from Philadelphia filed off the bus, got through security, and took their places on the marble steps of the Capitol Rotunda, modeled after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and filigreed with lots of gold leaf.

Joined by union brothers and sisters from Pittsburgh and elsewhere, their voices bounced off the top of the structure, 272 feet above the floor, a mighty roar.

The name of TWU Local 234 member Barry Paul was misspelled in an earlier version of this article.