SEPTA battles Bucks borough over Levittown upgrade

SEPTA wants a federal judge to issue a restraining order against a lower Bucks County municipality that the transit agency contends has imposed "exorbitant" fees and "excessive" regulations that are delaying a $36 million upgrade of its Levittown station.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the transit agency asked the court to bar the Borough of Tullytown from asserting any authority over the work at the station, which began in November. More than $250,000 in borough fees and other "regulatory burdens" have been preventing SEPTA from finishing the project, it claims.

"We want to move the Levittown station project forward and deliver the improvements our riders and the public deserve, while remaining good stewards of the taxpayers' money," SEPTA Board Chairman Pasquale T. "Pat" Deon said in a statement.

Tullytown officials deny any wrongdoing and contend that the upgrade has only been slowed by SEPTA's "poor management" and "bad plans," which they have repeatedly asked the agency to revise.

"They're being treated no differently than any other project in the borough," said Michael Sellers, the borough solicitor.

He said Tullytown is following normal project procedures and adhering to state laws but has had safety concerns about the plans.

Both sides are trying to resolve the dispute outside court, sources said. The lawsuit noted that they had failed to reach a resolution at a February meeting.

The Levittown station, built in the 1950s, is among six stations across the region where renovations were started or completed in the last two years. Using state and federal funds, the three-year project will, among other things, bring the station into compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Amtrak owns the station and leases it to SEPTA. The station, on its Trenton line, is the starting point or destination of about 1,200 trips on a typical weekday.

Federal law exempts Amtrak from state and local taxes, fees, zoning, and similar regulation. In its suit, SEPTA has asked the judge to rule that it also is not subject to any local building, zoning, or subdivision laws, or taxes and fees levied by the borough.

Tullytown's lawyer said officials there were surprised by the lawsuit after years of collaboration with SEPTA. "If they thought federal law preempted the borough from applying its local ordinances and state law, they should've done this years ago," Sellers said.

Sellers said he was optimistic that they would resolve the dispute.

"But the reality is," he said, "if they want to argue the preemption in federal court and [try to] take the project totally out of our hands, then that's the direction we'll take."

jmcdaniel@philly.com 610-313-8205 @McDanielJustine