SEPTA cuts bring crowded buses and skipped stops; Shapiro open to using special transit fund money

A Philadelphia teacher waited almost 90 minutes for a bus and was more than an hour late to work.

A single mother who takes two buses to get to work at a cleaning company in Conshohocken tried to control her anxiety as she waited at the Wissahickon Transportation Center.

And a teenager had to walk 40 minutes on her first day of school because her usual bus route was eliminated.

A ripple effect of SEPTA cuts? Waking up earlier and going to bed later.

“Dinner gets made later, any housecleaning needs to get done later, taking care of my animals and everything — which means I’m going to bed later, which is going to affect the way I work,” said Audra Grosso.

Grosso, 56, woke up at 4:30 a.m., and while she’d normally take transit into work, she opted for a Lyft on Monday. But during the 5 p.m. commute, Grosso encountered a 20-minute wait at the Frankford Transportation Center after missing an earlier departure, bumping up her arrival home by an hour or so. She said she’s considering working from home.

Uber saw a slight increase in demand during the morning rush hour on the first weekday of SEPTA cuts.

Between 6 a..m. and 8 a.m. Monday, the nation's most popular rideshare service recorded a 10% increase in trip requests in Philadelphia compared to the same period a year prior, according to Uber spokesperson Freddi Goldstein. But there was a decrease in surge pricing over that time, Goldstein said.

“It is Uber’s mission to help plug gaps in transit access," Goldstein said in a statement. "Understanding the SEPTA service reductions have left many Philadelphians struggling to get around, we capped surge pricing to help balance a spike in demand with cost concerns.”

Chellie Cameron, the president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, said she spoke with five area businesses Monday, and learned workers were coming in late or calling out entirely because of transportation issues.

“I worry as this drags on, what that's going to ultimately mean for the viability of our businesses,” Cameron said. She said she’s aware of some employers that are considering moving out of Philadelphia.

“I have heard from some mid-size companies and larger ones who are starting to question: If we don't have good transit connections, is Philadelphia the best place for them to be?” she said. One of them, she noted, has a location in the suburbs and may back out of opening a location in the city.

For a supposed transit apocalypse, things seemed muted Monday afternoon in SEPTA’s 19th-floor Control Center.

Radio transmissions from L and B trains, buses, transit police, and Regional Rail lines crackled, though the volume on the receivers was set low. Dispatchers gave their instructions.

“It’s always quiet like this. Very professional,” said Mary Ann Tierney, an emergency-management professional who is chief of the Control Center. “You want the people handling emergencies to be as calm as possible, not spun up,” she said.

As work let out, people got off the Broad Street Line at Olney Transit Center and waited to catch their buses.

Schanda Hassell was on her way home from Center City, where she works as a paralegal at District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office.

Hassell said she didn’t see any issues this morning on her commute, but she expects that to change on Sept. 2, when fares will increase and more services will be cut.

As the mid-day commuters and people running errands swapped places with the night shift workers and after school crowd, frustration and confusion reigned at transit hubs in Center City.

Delays, no matter how small, were feared to be part of worse things to come for the transit agency.

At a bus stop in front of the Municipal Services Building a woman and her mother fought over whether to keep waiting for their bus. Ultimately, the rideshare app prevailed.

At Philadelphia High School for Girls, Principal KaTiedra Argro said 636 students traveled from all over the city for the first day of class. For 90% of them, that journey involved SEPTA.

Today, the school saw 98% attendance, Argro said. But she worries that with fewer buses and trains causing longer waits, student attendance could drop off.

Transportation challenges also will affect school enrollment, Argro said. School officials have already discussed how they may need to adjust their recruitment messaging.

Gov. Josh Shapiro said a special fund with more than $2.4 billion set aside for mass transit capital repairs and emergencies may be part of a solution to Pennsylvania’s budget stalemate.

Shapiro, who previously opposed a Senate GOP plan to use the special fund called the Public Transportation Trust Fund, now says he is open to it as part of a broader agreement that includes recurring funding.

“I think utilizing the PTTF as part of a broader package is something we can do,” Shapiro said. “But it’s got to be part of a broader package that focuses on recurring funding over a long period of time, which funds mass transit in each of our 67 counties.”

After the final bell Monday, students meandered outside of Lincoln High and lingered by a deserted Rowland Avenue bus stop. Here, more than 2,000 students depend on SEPTA to get to class, sports, and other activities. But one of the most popular routes, 88, was eliminated, confusing and frustrating teens on the first day of school.

Without the convenience of the 88, senior Camilla Gomez must walk 40 minutes to Lincoln High in the mornings. After school, she walks roughly 15 minutes to Frankford Avenue and boards the 66 to get to work. She says she would take an Uber or Lyft, but she can’t afford the added expense.

The cuts “not only affects students,” Camilla said, “but what about the nurse that has to get to her hospital, the lawyer who has to get to his job — some of my teachers take the bus and now they can’t get here.”

The city is monitoring the effects SEPTA service cuts are having on residents and is taking steps to mitigate those impacts, but any interim plans are likely to fall short of a fully funded transit agency running at full capacity, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said at a Monday news conference.

"If there was a way that the City of Philadelphia alone could have addressed this, it would be done," Parker said. "But we can't do this — any of this — alone."

Acting managing director Mike Carroll reiterated a few pieces of advice for travelers, including trying to travel off of peak traffic times, utilizing park-and-ride lots near transit hubs to avoid taking vehicles into Center City, carpooling where possible, and considering using off-street parking to reduce congestion in high-traffic areas. He also asked employers to be more flexible with workers as traffic issues crop up.

The corner of 15th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard used to be a stop for 11 SEPTA buses. Due to cuts, that number is down to seven.

The Route 31 bus was one of the eliminated lines, now listed on a red and white placard, notifying riders of the change.

For Cassandra White, a 54-year-old nursing assistant who uses an assortment of buses and trains to get to patients, losing the 31 means more transfers and longer commutes.

The owner of one of Philadelphia’s largest parking companies says it is too soon to say what the impact of SEPTA’s cuts will be on his business, as demand is at its lowest point in late August.

“This is pretty much the slowest two to three weeks of the year for traffic and parking, so if there's a good time for this to happen it's now,” said Rob Zuritsky, president and CEO of the Parkway Corporation.

Zuritsky says that he thinks that SEPTA’s austerity program will hurt his business overall, because it will make Philadelphia’s economy less competitive.

Horton Green, 73, was left stranded by the Route 24 bus Monday afternoon outside the Frankford Transportation Center.

Green planned his 40-minute trip to his doctor around the bus’ updated schedule — but it didn’t show. If he missed the next bus, he said, he’d be late to his appointment. 

“The sad reality is, I have to rely on SEPTA, but I can’t rely on SEPTA,” said the Philadelphia native, whose only mode of transport is public transportation.

Members of City Council urged legislators in Harrisburg to go back to the negotiating table for a deal to fund SEPTA, noting that cuts to public transportation in the region stand to cause economic harms to not only Philadelphia, but the state overall.

"This isn't a Democratic problem. This isn't a Republican problem. It's a people problem," Councilmember Mike Driscoll, chair of council's transportation committee, said at a Monday news conference. "The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania needs to do its part."

Several councilmembers pointed toward the Philadelphia region's position as the state's economic engine, generating some 40% of state revenue annually, as an example of how service cuts impact more than just the city. While many Philadelphians will feel the brunt of the service cuts' impacts, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said, all of Pennsylvania will be affected.

SEPTA Regional Rail service cuts aren't slated to take place until next Tuesday, but Eva Stehle, 82, felt like she got a taste for what those will look like Monday.

Her 8:58 a.m. Chestnut Hill West train never arrived and had four other strangers not gotten together, with one offering to drive into Center City, Stehle wouldn't have made it to an important pulmonology appointment with Jefferson Health.

Stehle shuddered at the thought of having to navigate her upcoming medical checkups, which are the main reason she's using public transit these days.

While the state’s largest public transportation system implements major service cuts affecting thousands of Philadelphia students on their first day of school, top Republicans in Pennsylvania state government aren’t in the Capitol. They’re hosting fundraisers.

Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) is hosting a clay shoot in his district in Armstrong County, where attendees can spend $125 to $10,000 to attend or sponsor the event benefitting Pittman’s political action committee.

Pittman is the top negotiator at the closed-door budget talks with Gov. Josh Shapiro and House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery). He has hosted several Monday fundraisers in recent weeks, including most recently a golf tournament on Aug. 11, which was the same week SEPTA needed assurance of state funding before officially implementing its cuts.

Monday is the first day of school for 117,000 Philadelphia School District students, and SEPTA cuts were weighing on officials’ minds, they said, even as they celebrated a Philadelphia Federation of Teachers tentative agreement, reached late Sunday night.

“We know we’re still facing a monumental challenge right now with the state of affairs with our mass transit system,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said Monday morning at Steel Elementary. “But I have faith in our governor, our legislative leaders.”

She said city officials were “working hard” to support politicians in Harrisburg.

Transport Workers Union Local 234 President Brian Pollitt Monday blasted Pennsylvania Senate Republicans as “derelict in their duty” for failing to fund public transit and responsible for the massive service cuts causing chaos for riders in the Philadelphia region.

TWU Local 234 represents 5,000 SEPTA employees, including operators of buses, trolleys and subways, as well as mechanics and other workers. It is the largest bargaining unit and its contract with SEPTA is up in October.

“Hundreds of my members are now facing layoff,” Pollitt said in a statement. “Unless this funding crisis ends now and the Senate majority stops playing politics, we — and by that I mean my members and all Pennsylvanians — will face real harm.”

Sitting on a green metal bench at the Wissahickon Transportation Center, Emma Barrie wondered who to call to ask if her bus is coming. She was more than an hour late to work Monday.

As a first grade teacher, Barrie was supposed to be at work by 9 a.m., but her usual Route 61 bus — among those whose route was shortened — was missing in action.

Unable to take an Uber or find a different route, her heart skipped a bit every time a bus arrived at the station, only to discover it wasn’t hers.

At the Wissahickon Transportation Center, some commuters reported skipped stops and crowded buses on the first business day of SEPTA’s service reductions.

Tonya Beauford, 56, takes three buses to get to her job at a daycare near Center City. The service cuts mean she now wakes up at 4:30 a.m. to make it to work on time.

Her first bus, Route 113, was so crowded it began skipping stops, Beauford said.

The first day of school had kids lining up at Ridge Avenue hoping their buses made it to Wissahickon Transportation Center on time.

Zairean Wills, 15, woke up at 6 a.m. for her first day as a sophomore at Roxborough High School, and hour earlier than she planned to wake up before the cuts.

“It’s fine because I get more time with my friends, but it sucks that I have to wake up earlier for no reason,” Wills said, sharing a Dunkin' breakfast with her friend.

When Kyree Clyatt showed up at the 69th Street Transportation Center Monday morning, he didn’t know that SEPTA had eliminated 32 bus routes.

Clyatt, who had moved to Richmond, Va., from West Philly two years ago, was in town for a family funeral. The bus he was supposed to take, Clyatt said, never showed up.

“I had no idea,” Clyatt said. “I was like, ‘Where did the bus go?’”

Philadelphia lawyer George Bochetto demanded SEPTA halt service cuts and said he has been hired by a group of riders to sue the transit agency, in an email sent Sunday night.

“SEPTA’s planned service reductions are draconian in nature and will have a severe impact on racial and ethnic minorities and low-income citizens in Southeastern Pennsylvania without any legitimate basis,” Bochetto wrote in the notice, which was first reported by Big Trial on Substack.

Consumer advocate Lance Haver is among those involved in the action to block SEPTA’s service cuts, according to the Substack post. The action comes as Harrisburg has failed to approve new state funding for mass transit. The first round of service cuts began Sunday.

Monday is Alayah Brown’s first day of work as a teaching assistant at an elementary school in Delaware County, and now she might be late.

Brown had planned to take the Route 110 bus from the 69th Street Transportation Center, but watched it pull away at 8:15 a.m while she was stuck at a red light across the street.

Most of the buses in her West Philadelphia neighborhood had also been eliminated, Brown said, so she had to walk here. And if she waited another 30 minutes for the next bus, Brown said she’d make a bad first impression.

After SEPTA eliminated 32 bus routes as part of its first wave of transportation cuts, dozens of dreary-eyed commuters at the 69th Street Transportation Center were planning to embark on new — and often — longer commutes.

Janiya Sutton, of West Philly, now has to wake up at 5:30 a.m. to make it to her work at the Barnes & Nobles in Broomall, Delaware County. She used to take the Market-Frankford Line from 52nd Street and transfer to the 120 bus, which was eliminated.

Now, Sutton must board the 107, which she said would double her once hourlong journey. The change has already forced her to cut hours at work since she can no longer get there in time to open, despite getting up earlier.

After a failure in Harrisburg to reach a budget agreement, SEPTA began rolling out dramatic service cuts in Philadelphia and across the region Sunday morning.

The rest of the cuts went into effect Monday morning, which also happens to be the first day of school for the Philadelphia School District.

Thirty-two SEPTA bus routes have been eliminated and 16 were shortened. They are:

SEPTA warned us for two years.

Some people stopped listening because impoverishment has been the perpetual soundtrack of the transit system, and salvation always seemed to arrive at the last minute.

Not this time. Massive cuts in SEPTA service began early morning Sunday and continue today.

Three hours before a pitch was thrown in the Phillies’ Sunday afternoon matchup against the Washington Nationals, a handful of fans were already idling in cars outside Citizens Bank Park, waiting for parking lot gates to open.

Bill Small, of Ambler, ordinarily prefers to take the Broad Street subway line to Phillies games, riding south from Fern Rock to the NRG Station at Broad Street and Pattison Avenue.

But grim predictions about the effect that the SEPTA cutbacks will have on highways and bridges spooked Small, 66. The Phillies, too, warned ticket holders in an email to allow extra time to get to and from the ballpark.