Transit agency plans to shut down dozens of bus and rail lines and hike fares due to funding shortfall.
Buses, trains and trolleys make their lives possible.
They specifically bought their homes near transit lines.
If their local routes stop operating, they'll have to buy a second car or move to a different neighborhood.
And they're demanding that the state Senate give SEPTA the funding it needs to avoid catastrophic cuts.
Those were some of the messages that riders and transit advocates repeated over and over at a SEPTA public hearing Monday, the first of several the agency is holding as it advances a plan to shut down dozens of routes and sharply hike fares.
Lauren Montgomery, a volunteer services supervisor at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said the majority of her coworkers ride transit to work and it would be impossible for them all to drive and find parking instead. Patients are also "scared" about the prospect of not being able to access treatment, she said.
"They talk to us. They ask us what they're going to do. Will their families be able to come to them? Are they going to miss appointments?" she said. "So I'm not being dramatic when I say that this is a life-or-death situation."
Northern Liberties resident Tyler Combs said he doesn't have a car, and he and his partner depend on transit to get to critical doctor's appointments, games at the South Philly stadiums and Center City entertainment.
Shutting down routes "will force me to cut back on attending the plays, musicals and orchestral performances I love seeing on the Avenue of the Arts, because without reliable buses or night service on the L or BSL, I won't be able to get home," he said. "SEPTA cuts will kill business, and they will kill culture."
Some speakers, like retiree Corine Acosta, were practically in tears as they told SEPTA's board and executives how much they depend on the transit authority's services.
"That's the only way we could get around. I can't even go nowhere no more, because my arthritis is so bad, and I have to get on SEPTA even to go to the hospital," said Acosta, who lives in Center City. "Now they want to cut you. It's not right. They're forgetting what this city is about and what this city has been doing for years."
SEPTA's interim general manager Scott Sauer and other executives explained at the hearing's start that the agency faces a $213 million annual deficit, which they attributed to "acute inflationary pressures" and the end of federal pandemic relief aid last year.
For example, SEPTA's electricity costs have jumped 25% since a year earlier, and the cost of regulatory-required paratransit services for disabled riders increased 16%, budget director Erik Johanson said. SEPTA is also spending substantially more on police and cleaners to boost customer satisfaction and post-pandemic ridership recovery, he said.
At the same time, it has instituted austerity and revenue measures, like partial hiring and wage freezes, new parking lot fees, and a fare hike in December, which have helped reduce its structural deficit from $240 million last year. Any further savings will require service cuts, Johanson said.
Starting this August, the budget plan would initially eliminate 32 bus routes, shorten 16 others, and reduce service on the other lines. Fares would be increased another 21.5%, leading to a projected drop in ridership.
In January, SEPTA would shut down 12 more bus routes, the B3 (Broad-Ridge Spur) subway line, and five Regional Rail lines: Cynwyd, Chestnut Hill West, Paoli/Thorndale, Trenton, and Wilmington/Newark. The T1 and G trolleys would become bus lines, and the whole system would stop running after 9 p.m. every night.
Remaining riders will "experience a greatly diminished system, overcrowded buses and trains with customers regularly being passed up. Those that abandon the transit system and choose to drive will experience gridlocked roads," said Jody Holton, the authority's chief planning and strategy officer.
Last year, Gov. Josh Shapiro prevented cuts by shifting some federal infrastructure funds to SEPTA, but "no emergency federal highway flex is available this year," Johanson said.
Shapiro and state House Democrats have proposed spending more sales tax revenue on mass transit statewide, but Republicans who hold the Senate majority have so far rejected the idea, citing the state's long-term structural budget deficit and the relative lack of transit in the rural and exurban districts they represent.
They have discussed creating a new tax on slot machine-like skill games, which could potentially pay for more transit funding, but have not yet introduced a bill. Other legislators have proposed legalizing and taxing recreational marijuana sales, imposing new fees on car rentals and ride-share services like Uber, and allowing counties to levy new types of local taxes specifically for transportation.
To prevent service cuts and fare increases, any funding solution would need to be in place by the start of the next fiscal year on July 1.
Many of the dozens of people who lined up to speak at the Monday morning hearing at SEPTA's Market Street headquarters, or who phoned in to testify, described the very specific travel conditions in their neighborhoods that make transit essential to their daily lives.
Bonita Tyes said she began taking the bus regularly when she was a student at West Chester University, in Chester County, because "West Chester is a horrible place for cars." She said some students take buses to the school's Philadelphia campus, and would struggle to continue their classes without them.
"If people don't have a way to get here, then what are they supposed to do?" she asked. "Are people just supposed to walk up Lancaster Avenue? To take an Uber, it's like $30 to $50 to go 20 miles, depending on the time of day. It's like we're left without any alternative."
UPenn associate professor Jennifer Ponce de León was among several speakers who said she specifically chose her home because it's near transit, in her case the Chestnut Hill West line.
Like others, she said that without easy access to the train, her family might have to buy a second car -- "just one example of the many people who would be pushed onto using more and more automobiles, which is ... incredibly ecologically devastating already, with our air pollution. Our highways are already overwhelming and dangerous."
Will Tung, a firefighter and transit activist who lives in Kingsessing, said his family is "completely dependent" on trolleys to get his daughter to school and his wife to work. He also noted that the planned cuts are projected to result in 300,000 more cars coming into the city daily.
"That's as if every single person in Pittsburgh, including the children, all decided to get in the car, their own car, and drive in our streets in Philadelphia, which is utterly devastating, utterly devastating," he said. "So thank you, SEPTA, for doing what you can to kind of talk to legislators in Harrisburg to make sure that this death spiral doesn't happen."
The speakers acknowledged that, while they were addressing their complaints and concerns to SEPTA's board and executives, their real targets are the Republican lawmakers who they blame for not breaking through the funding impasse.
Brandon Blue, a recent Temple grad who volunteers with the 5th Square advocacy organization, argued that legislators have long stymied SEPTA's efforts to expand its services, and need to understand why the state would suffer if it is dismantled.
"We can make this a group effort to stand up against the Senate Republicans that have held us back for decades, but in order to do that, we need to get more people involved in this issue," he said. Advocates should "come together and tell the Senate, look, as Philadelphians have a lot to offer, and we are an important city with a system that contributes significantly to Pennsylvania's [economy]."
While the bulk of job losses and other economic distress expected to result from the service cuts would affect SEPTA's five-county region, an economic analysis commissioned by the agency found that the state as a whole would see a combined $241 million drop in several types of tax revenue.
In addition, if there's no funding increase, transit agencies in Pittsburgh and a number of other regions could be forced to make cuts, in addition to SEPTA.
"I blame a state Senate majority in Harrisburg who's decided to hold transit riders and operators and operators throughout the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hostage," said Combs, the Northern Liberties resident. "These officials, many of whom have never ridden transit nor feel cost-burdened by their own car ownership, would rather play political games with our lives and clog the arteries of Pennsylvania's economy to let our economic heart fail, rather than fund SEPTA and other transit agencies."
The hearing was preceded by a rally on Market Street in front of SEPTA's headquarters that was attended by city councilmembers and several state legislators from the agency's five-county region.
Another public hearing on the budget was held Monday afternoon, and more hearings are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at 10 a.m and 4 p.m. SEPTA's board will hold a regular meeting Thursday at 3 p.m. and will vote on the budget June 26.