Following three weeks of turmoil, SEPTA riders finally found some stability Sunday, as the transit agency restored the 20% of service that was slashed amid the authority’s well-publicized funding crisis.
But SEPTA’s customers are now paying more. A 21.5% fare hike also went into effect Sunday, bringing the base rate up from $2.50 to $2.90.
On Aug. 24, the authority eliminated 32 bus routes, shortened another 16, axed sports express trains on the Broad Street Line and reduced frequencies across all other bus, subway and trolley lines in response to a $213 million budget deficit.
A Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge halted planned cuts to the Regional Rail system that were supposed to go into place Sept. 2.
Within city limits, the cuts were officially undone Sunday, while some bus and trolley routes based in the suburbs were set to return to normal levels Monday. Complete schedules are available at septa.org/news/restored-service-schedules.
“We’re pretty confident service is going to roll out normal” for the work week, Andrew Busch, an authority spokesperson, told Metro on Sunday.
SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer, in a message posted to the authority’s website, acknowledged that “the last several weeks may have been confusing and frustrating for our riders and the public.”
In the past 30 days, the authority has instituted three schedule changes – typically as many as SEPTA does in an entire year. More than 3,000 red service reduction signs were posted at bus stops throughout the region; not all were removed by Sunday.
“This is a big undertaking, and I know there will still be some confusion as we make the transition,” Sauer wrote. “It will take some time to catch up, and I appreciate you hanging in there with us.”
‘Been through enough’
State Sen. Vincent Hughes, a Philadelphia-based Democrat and minority Appropriations Committee chair, penned a letter to SEPTA’s board late last week to request they scrap the fare hike.
He noted that SEPTA instituted a 7.5% price increase in December 2024. As recently as November, Key Card users enjoyed a discount over cash riders and were paying $2 for bus, subway and trolley rides. Now, they will be forking over almost $3.
Hughes, in the correspondence, argued that moving forward with the price jump would accelerate SEPTA’s ‘death spiral,’ even with service restored.
“SEPTA riders have been through enough,” he continued. “Do not put this unfair burden on them.”
Busch said the authority’s leadership team did not feel there was a way to balance the budget and maintain service levels without the hike. Officials estimate that the fare increase will result in extra $31 million a year.
“It’s pretty clear that we have to do as much as we can to try to generate as much revenue as we can,” he added. “We had hoped to not have to have a fare increase this large, but with the way things went, we felt that, in terms of our financial responsibility, this is what we had to do.”
SEPTA acted to restore service after Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration approved the agency’s request to redistribute up to $394 million in capital funding to cover operating costs over a two-year period.
“We’re hoping we might be able to use less of it, potentially, so that it doesn’t take as much away from the capital program,” Busch said.
Prior to the December fare increase, SEPTA had not raised prices since 2017. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the authority usually adjusted fares every three years.
After Judge Sierra Thomas Street ordered the agency on Aug. 29 not to roll out the fare increase, SEPTA intended to refund $1.25 million to customers who purchased passes before the court decision.
Street issued an updated ruling Sept. 4 that permitted the fare hike. Those refund payments will no longer go out to riders, authority representatives said.
