The shared-ride and paratransit system in PA is broken.
Paratransit is the service that seniors and people with disabilities use to take shared van rides where they need to go, since larger fixed-route buses are often inaccessible. Paratransit (or shared-ride) service is legally required by the Americans with Disabilities Act wherever fixed-route service exists, and operates in all 67 counties of Pennsylvania.
Here’s the problem: nearly every transit agency in PA is robbing its fixed-route budgets to keep shared-ride and paratransit service running—putting fixed-route service at risk in the process. Our most vulnerable residents, in the most rural corners of the state, are on the brink of losing access to healthcare, food, jobs, and community.
At the same time, LANTA is cutting service and raising fares in the Lehigh Valley, and Red Rose Transit and BARTA in Lancaster and Berks counties could see the same fate within the year without a change. And systems like SEPTA and PRT are further delaying safety and accessibility upgrades due to required “flexes” of their capital budgets – money that isn’t even available to our small transit agencies.
THIS YEAR, Pennsylvanians need urgent funding for our shared-ride and paratransit services—the public transportation that serves every county, no matter how rural. By funding these essential trips, small transit systems can stall potential service cuts for years longer, and riders and workers can push for service restoration and expansion.
A crisis for rural transit riders
Transit isn’t just urban. And the most essential of our transit trips take place in all 67 counties: on shared-ride and paratransit. Every year, transit systems in Lancaster, Berks, York, Dauphin, Luzerne, Lackawanna, and numerous other counties face a large – and growing – structural gap in funding to provide seniors and people with disabilities access to food, healthcare, and community. Because of these gaps, every agency is covering costs with money designed to be used for fixed-route service that is cheaper to deliver per rider, and serves more people.
Shared-ride and paratransit is the only mode of transit in dozens of PA counties. But even in urban areas like Philadelphia and Allegheny counties, these services get thousands of people every day to the places they need to go. The Pennsylvania legislature can fix this structural problem, and give every corner of commonwealth—especially our most rural places—the breathing room to stabilize operations and even explore more efficient service models that serve more riders.
At the end of 2025, House Speaker Joanna McClinton and Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward agreed in year-end Q&As that transportation must be central to this year’s budget. And Governor Shapiro touted his emergency actions to keep just some of PA’s transit in motion. But the services that cover the largest geographies of the state are still under urgent threat.
Take action now: click the button below to tell your representatives that all transit riders need stable funding for paratransit, so that paratransit and fixed-route riders alike can get where they need to go.
