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Keep SEPTA Funded and Working
(and expand it!)
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Email keepseptafunded@gmail.com
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Today: there is still no consistent local, state, or federal funding source for SEPTA.
And it's getting worse.
First, some history: SEPTA has been chronically underfunded since its beginning.
"SEPTA has some very serious funding problems.
We always do [...] and if we don't solve them,
I think that you are going to be very disappointed as to what you see in the way of service."
-David L. Gunn, SEPTA general manager 1979-1984
in a WHYY interview, 1983
The Inquirer,
July 12, 2024
WHYY,
July 12, 2024
Metro
Philadelphia,
July 16, 2024
SEPTA's current funding woes
Note: All of the information in this chart was sourced from SEPTA's Fiscal Year 2025 Budget and the Inquirer's July 12, 2024 article about the funding situation.
$240 million
SEPTA's total projected operating deficit for the 2024 fiscal year, which began July 1, 2024.
$160 million
The original amount SEPTA was supposed to receive from Governor Shapiro's plan to increase the amount of sales tax money available to the state's Public Transportation Trust Fund.
$53 million
The new amount SEPTA is supposed to receive from a one-time infusion of state money to public transportation agencies across PA.
After Republicans in the state Senate said that mass transit funding would have to come with road infrastructure money too, this compromise had to be made- putting SEPTA at an even greater disadvantage as usual.
​
Governor Shapiro calls this a "temporary solution," and he's right.
$240 million operating deficit -
$53 million one-time infusion from the state =
In other words: SEPTA is $187 million away from being able to operate service at current levels, let alone run trains, trolleys, and buses on more frequent schedules. And at this level of operating deficit, badly-needed expansions of service like the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway and improvements to existing service are out of the question.
SEPTA's operating deficit for FY 2024 is STILL
$187 million
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