The crisis in transit funding is real. SEPTA is one of the worst-funded major transit agencies in the U.S. and it is facing a $62 million deficit for the current year. You don’t have to take SEPTA’s word for it. We are an independent group of transit activists who want convenient, efficient, reliable, and inexpensive public transit in the Greater Philadelphia region. We have looked at the books and know we won’t get there without new, dedicated funding for public transit from the state of Pennsylvania.

Do you want an end to weekend service? a 25% fare increases? a 20% cut in service? 1400 workers laid off? monster traffic jams, gridlock at the stadiums, shutdown theatres, and choking air pollution? The Philadelphia region is facing an economic, social and environmental catastrophe in the new year. Without dedicated funding SEPTA won’t have any choice but to adopt a plan that will devastate our communities.

Even if we could limp through another year with budget band-aids—targeted reductions in service, a large fare increase and another go round of shuffling money from one pot to another—why should we settle for reductions in a transit system that is already inadequate? We will never get the public transit system this region needs until Pennsylvania takes on the same responsibility  for funding public transit that other states such as Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois have accepted.

We face a fundamental choice: Without new dedicated funding for public transit, SEPTA will slowly collapse. With it, public transit will gradually improve, benefiting everyone who lives in the Greater Philadelphia region. Without  dedicated funding, our declining public transit system will strangle our communities. With it, public transit will make an increasingly important contribution to the the quality of life in our region, helping seniors and school children; serving workers and students; and contributing to the economic and residential development we so much need.