SEPTA is broken, not broke
SEPTA is broken. “Team SEPTA” wants us to believe the issue is that they’re broke (and deserve even more taxpayer aid), but the sad reality is the system is broken.
Nothing that SEPTA officials, its Board of Directors comprised of politicians, its politician allies, mass-transit cultists, anti-car activists, climate warriors, or their apologists in the legacy media — and, even those honest to goodness riders genuinely concerned about getting to work — can say will change that unfortunate reality.
Before I’m labeled a “SEPTA-hater” or a Neanderthal that doesn’t “value” mass-transit, here’s a reality check. I grew up in South Philly and rode the subway and 2 bus to high school. I occasionally rode the bus to Hawk Hill. When we moved to Paoli, my wife and I took the R5 to work, and with our children to events in Center City and the stadiums. On rare occasions, we still do. As a dad and former Chamber CEO — and chief of staff to several state and federal elected officials — I understand why SEPTA matters to everyday riders and our regional economy.
None of that changes the reality. SEPTA is broken.
Non-responsive leadership, meddling politicians, poor route planning, bad decisions, Covid, lack of cleanliness, safety issues, and an unwillingness to reimagine what SEPTA ought to look like post-Covid — has left it broken. As the saying goes; “Poor planning on your part doesn’t constitute an emergency on our part.”
Almost 84 percent of SEPTA’s budget comes from taxpayer subsidies, not riders. And they still can’t make it work — and have shown little willingness to embrace reality and change.
SEPTA is pretending to be “broke” to cause crises to get more taxpayer money. They have $400 million in reserves and millions more in designated taxpayer funding. The present system cannot be supported without a never-ending, ever-growing annual subsidy from non-riders needed to prop up an outdated, non-customer friendly, bureaucratic, politically operated, unaccountable system.
They want money, not reform. Democratic politicians — from Shapiro to the state House, to suburban county commissioners — are leading that cheer. The reality is that the Republican-led state Senate actually passed a compromise bill funding SEPTA through the summer of 2027, but Team SEPTA didn’t like how it was funded. So, here we are.
It’s why they’re engaging in the traveling medicine show — press conferences highlighting threatened cuts in services. With a willing legacy press happy to echo Team SEPTA’s message. The Inquirer went above and beyond by doing a featured story on how SEPTA’s cuts will cause air pollution — endangering the elderly and those with chronic respiratory illnesses.
To grab attention, SEPTA’s taxpayer-funded professional PR team and lobbyists came up with a scheme: threaten chaos for the Eagles opening game! To grab the attention of both “Joe Six Pack” and the glitterati of the Main Line, SEPTA proclaimed loudly: they would cut about 40 percent of the pre- and post-game subways to the Linc. Brilliant!
It’s a master class in everything that brought us to where we are. Politically motivated, contrived theatrics to grab headlines and harm the public — all to achieve a political goal: more money.
Take a service that’s actually popular — serving suburban and city residents, growing in use, actually making money — and announce you’re cutting it. Because you “have to.”
No business would operate that way — you wouldn’t cut back on what’s popular or revenue producing. (When business is slow, McDonald’s doesn’t threaten to stop selling french fries.)
But, Team SEPTA’s (including presidential wannabe Shapiro) only negotiating tactic is to hold people hostage.
As a result, the entire annual Pennsylvania budget — $48 billion needed for state police, senior citizens, public education, higher education, state parks, prisons, libraries, welfare, Medicaid and Medicare, health clinics and roads (that we all use) — is being held hostage because Team SEPTA argues that Armageddon will occur if they don’t get $219 million more dollars, on top of what they already receive from taxpayers from Harrisburg, Congress, and greater Philadelphia counties.
SEPTA riders pay only 16 percent of the cost of a ride (compared with 34 percent in New York and 24 percent in Boston). This is an indisputable fact, courtesy of SEPTA’s own budget. Pennsylvanians from Port Richmond to Paoli to Punxsutawney and Americans from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, pay the overwhelming majority of a SEPTA passenger’s ride on buses, subways, trolleys and trains.
Spoiler alert: As sure as Nick Castellanos will swing at the first pitch; no matter what eventually happens with this budget, SEPTA will be back next year with another “crisis” begging for more — or else.
SEPTA hasn’t had a major revision in its routes in 60 years. SEPTA has made bad — expensive — decisions: from contracting for Chinese train cars that never arrived to unusable electric buses, from its flawed first attempt at electronic payments to paying six-figure severances to outgoing officials.
Ridership is only 72 percent of its pre-Covid level.
Routes that don’t reflect the realities of 2025 or the future. A bloated agency. Poor decision-making. A lack of focus on cleanliness and safety. Its efficiency — how much bang they get for the buck (miles traveled/passenger) — is average, at best, nationally.
As my dad’s generation would say: “It’s no way to run a railroad.”
The politicians throwing our tax dollars at SEPTA should be mindful that they not only represent the relatively small number of riders, but they owe it to taxpayers (and riders) to demand reforms and changes — a new SEPTA.
Senator Joe Picozzi — the freshman from Northeast Philly — offered a “carrot and stick” approach: reforms, transparency and accountability in return for more money now…and future funding dependent on how the reforms progress.
The activists’ responses flooded into his Northeast Philly office and shut it down.
SEPTA is broken. Until that’s recognized, and there’s a genuine attempt to reform it — protecting riders and taxpayers — $49 billion dollars is being held hostage.
Theater of the absurd, indeed.
Guy Ciarrocchi is a Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation. A former Chief of Staff to the Lt. Governor, a State Senator and member of Congress, he writes for Broad + Liberty and RealClear Pennsylvania. Follow Guy at @PaSuburbsGuy.
