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system cannot be supported without a never-ending, ever-growing annual subsidy from non-riders needed to prop up an outdated, non-customer friendly, bureaucratic, politically operated, unaccountable system.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 23 percent in New York and 20.5 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.
Editors note: This article was updated to correct information about farebox recovery figures on other transit systems.
Wow – great job Guy! You said it all and indicted all the guilty parties. Thank You.
When Democrats protest, they are “activists”. When Republicans protest, they are “concerned parents”. Another piece of partisan claptrap from a former Philadelphian who has made his ENTIRE career out of disparaging his former home town. Meanwhile, I will be walking to work tomorrow.
I didn’t see that the author made that distinction by party, but if he shoe fits, by all means, wear it!
About 99% of the rest of the media, the opposite is true. It’s refreshing to see Republicans portrayed as thinking, caring people for a change.
This article is a 500 foot Schwarbomb.
Excellent Guy. For the record neither you or I communicated about SEPTA. Why not have the user’s of SEPTA pay 100% of the fare cost?. An old idea from Adam Smith in the great year 1776.
It’s the opposite- at 16% it might as well run free to the public, save the overhead. Much cheaper overall and more beneficial to the region
As daily SEPTA rider, the 16% figure may be actually a stretch. When about 25% to 33% of the supposed fare payers hop over the turnstiles on the Broad Street Subway and the Frankford EL without paying. It looks like the hurdle races at the Penn Relays when you watch all of the young people who vault over the turnstiles when an EL or subway train pulls into the station without paying. Plus, the homeless who aimlessly ride the trains between Frankford and 69th Street all back and forth all day long without paying. Don’t even get me started on all of the people either getting on the buses and trolleys through the back door or just walking in the front door without paying.
SEPTA needs a good DOGE-ing. Get Elon and Big Balls in here. Trim he fat. Cut the waste. What you have here is decades of democrats at the city and state level filling the trough with taxpayer money and then taking their seat and feeding at the trough with political patronage.
These are facts! They’re also stealing funds from rider’s Septa wallets, who possess a transpass or trailpass. I believe all these 👽s they now have working for Septa are placing skimmers on validators and/or manipulating features within the software/database systems to do so. It appears to be an organized criminal ring within Septa, took jobs from Americans and gave then to Africans and Jamaicans.
Investigate these Freemasons within Septa, immigrant/migrant Mayors and other elected unofficials who formerly worked for Septa, playing the power play behind the scenes. I have witnessed time and time again, immigrants/migrants allow their cultures to ride Septa for free, it’s not just the substance abuse users.
Majority Septa staff has very nasty attitudes, rude, no customer service skills, and disrespects riders.
So true! They’re also stealing funds from rider’s Septa wallets, who possess a transpass or trailpass. I believe all these 👽s they now have working for Septa are placing skimmers on validators and/or manipulating features within the software/database systems to do so. It appears to be an organized criminal ring within Septa, took jobs from Americans and gave then to Africans and Jamaicans.
Investigate these Freemasons within Septa, immigrant/migrant Mayors and other elected unofficials who formerly worked for Septa, playing the power play behind the scenes. I have witnessed time and time again, immigrants/migrants allow their cultures to ride Septa for free, it’s not just the substance abuse users.
Majority Septa staff has very nasty attitudes, rude, no customer service skills, and disrespects riders.
Great article, Guy.
YES, clearly SEPTA is deceptively trying to foist their own mismanagement on state taxpayers, which is all of us yet again, instead of being smart, creative, forward looking or even…business like.
Every one of our Philadelphia urban challenges such as public transport, transit ticketing, parking and parking kiosks, bicycles, bicycle traffic lights, speed limits in the downtown area, HOW TO FIX A POTHOLE, street cleaning without moving parked cars, etc., pedestrian crossings, public safety, sane street lighting, trash collection, policing, smart traffic lights, very safe and simple roundabouts and so many more, have already been intelligently solved in Amsterdam, London, Berlin and Paris.
As this journal likes to say: “Ideas to STEAL!” In those four European cities.
Buy plane tickets for our department designers and leaders to travel over there to learn from their solutions so we can copy them, steal them, to save the millions and millions of our own tax dollars we squander yearly in every city department going around in circles trying to reinvent all those wheels, which have already been invented over there.
Please, Mayor Parker, buy the plane tickets to “steal ideas” to solve our many urban challenges here at home.
You echo my thoughts on this topic completely. Well stated.
At 16% fare support it’s obviously time to get rid of ALL fares and run the whole system FREE to the PUBLIC
The saving in overhead alone will justify this measure- public transit should be like streetlights and trash collection: automatic.
Fire the administrative class and give the real workers a BIG RAISE while running the service FREE to the PUBLIC
Really well done Guy. Great insight into the problem and not a new one for long time government supported institutions. Thank you for providing a rational perspective on a political disagreement with ramification for working people.
If anyone is interested, you can get a book that was published in the 1970s. The Title is ” The Wreck of the PennCentral” and gives a great insight into the beginning of the great commuter rail catastrophe. You will see that decisions made by the railroad executive buffoons coupled with Federal rail regulators (I like to refer to them as the clown show of transportation) led to commuter service and passenger rail generally, being placed on life support, later to have the railroad coroner called in to issue a death certificate. I hate to say it, but there is no single villain here. Commuters who began to prefer driving to rail, city politicians who willingly made driving into the city far too easy (Think NYC’s Commissioner Barnes and the classic urban self-destruct vehicle: “Cross Bronx Expressway” and the like in all metro areas). State Level politicians who view mass transit as a personal piggy bank for their political benefit (after all, not their money). When I moved to my current house 50 years ago it required an artic explorer to find its location. Commuter transport was an alien concept yet there was a multi-track rail line within 1.5 miles, and which had platform stations every so often between two major metro areas. They were abandoned during the Great depression when farm produce transport died off. No attempt has been made since to use this rail line with stations for commuting purposes. It is how we in America waste resources. SEPTA will continue to be the poster child for how to shove money down a rat hole while delivering sub-par service.
Spot on. Empty busses everywhere, routes that haven’t been revised for years, Half hourly headways on routes that should be an hour and on and on. BTW, no one is writing about what cutting service will do to their f8nNces…..we haven’t seen one article about how many people will be laid off as a result of service reductions. The only clear one I see is that they won’t be paying Amtrak $61M for the NEC and Paoli lone. That lowers the budget gap to $150M. Why no one is writing about what the service reductions will save is mind boggling. Oh, wait. Theye Union jobs. So they will continue to get paid for doing nothing, even though there should be a 20% reduction in force. SMH.
Car drivers pay tens of thousands of dollars, including sales tax and fees when buying a car. Every year they pay thousands for insurance, hundreds for loan interest, inspection and maintenance. They have to pay for registration every year for who knows why. They pay bridge and Turnpike tolls and half a buck for every gallon of gas which was supposed to be for road infrastructure but is now used for all sorts of things. Why should they pay the fare for bus riders. It cost car drivers much more to get to work than bus riders. Car drivers should demand that bus riders help pay the cost of driving to work.