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Great communities need great transit. We demand PA Senators and Governor Shapiro do their jobs to stop imminent fare increases and service cuts across Pennsylvania.
Transit funding is essential to a competitive, healthy Pennsylvania economy, providing mobility and access to all!
Transit isn’t a charity service – it’s a public good for all. Transit access wins Pennsylvania major events like the NFL Draft, WrestleMania, FIFA World Cup, and MLB All-Star Game. It attracts and retains major employers: from WaWa in southeastern Pennsylvania, to distribution warehouses in Erie, to manufacturers in Scranton. And it allows youth, elders, and people with disabilities to access jobs, healthcare, and culture in every county in the commonwealth.
SEPTA serves more daily users than I-95. After I-95 collapsed in 2023, Governor Shapiro and officials across geography and politics rallied to restore it immediately – all for 160,000 daily drivers. SEPTA alone served over 791,000 riders per day in September 2024, while well over 1million Pennsylvanians use transit every day. Public transportation plays a foundational role in our commonwealth.
Governor Shapiro and the PA Senate can solve this. The PA House of Representatives has passed an increase to the state sales tax allocation (but not the tax itself) three times in the past year to fund public transportation operations. Governor Shapiro echoed this in his budget proposal, but he and the PA Senate dropped ongoing transit funding in the July budget. The governor can act unilaterally to flex federal highway funding or other discretionary funds, or the PA Senate can pass a deal that keeps transit secure in advance of a comprehensive transportation funding package in 2025.
These harms will affect all of us: SEPTA’s budget shortfall alone will result in $254.7 million in state and local tax revenue losses – affecting suppliers, too, in over a dozen counties across PA. That’s money that funds education, social services, economic development and infrastructure all across the Commonwealth. Further delays will lead to similar losses in transit systems throughout the state.
It’s not too late for Governor Shapiro and the PA Senate, but it will be soon. Take action today.
Transit riders and transit workers, as well as business and community leaders across the Commonwealth are calling on our Pennsylvania elected leaders to do their job and pass funding for public transportation operations that allow for adaptation and growth.
Whether you live in Harrisburg or Pittsburgh, Wilkes Barre or Erie, rural towns or Philadelphia, all Pennsylvanians deserve safe, reliable, dignified access to the places they need to go and public transportation funding is critical to making that happen.