Five people sit in the train car, staring out at the trees, listening to music, reading the newspaper. I sit on the right side of the car, in a two seater three seats back from the very front of the train, homework strung about next to me. This has been my seat for over five years, with countless nights fighting sleep, reading books for school and for pleasure, and laughing with friends engraved into its heat signature. This story was meant to be a love letter to the Chestnut Hill West, the regional rail line that loops from Northwest Philadelphia to Center City, but as of late, it’s seeming more and more like a farewell.
The line has been threatened with cancellation for over a year, with SEPTA citing low–ridership from a significant post–pandemic drop off. But, as of April 10 this year, it isn’t the only part of SEPTA at risk.
After extreme budget cuts, SEPTA has announced a 45% reduction of service, which threatens to shut down Chestnut Hill West, four other regional rail lines that run on Amtrak tracks, 50 bus routes, and shorten or reduce service of many others. They’ll also start enforcing a 9 p.m. regional rail and metro line curfew, and increase fares by 21.5%. The current proposed cuts would come in phases, with phase one, a 20% reduction in service starting in August 2025, a fare increase in September, and an additional 25% cut to service starting in January 2026.
The budget cut stems from years of underfunding from the state government, COVID–19 ridership drops, and the 2022 end of Act 89, which had funded PA transit since 2013, and the depletion of the American Rescue Plan COVID–19 relief funding in 2024. This amounts to a $213 million cut to SEPTA alone, not to mention public transportation across the state.
Connor Descheemaker , the campaign manager for Transit for All PA!, a statewide coalition for public transportation riders and workers, explains that over 800,000 people ride SEPTA daily, only 76% of pre–COVID–19 numbers, but still nearly three times as many people that drive down I–95 daily. SEPTA is the backbone of Philadelphia, and after the recent cut announcement, Descheemaker and other transit constituents are scrambling to save it.
Governor Josh Shapiro’s latest proposed budget for mass transit includes $292.5 million annually, with SEPTA saying they would initially receive $165 million. But according to Descheemaker, this is barely enough money to sustain SEPTA in the long term. If Shapiro's budget is all that is passed, every transit agency [in PA] except for SEPTA will still cut service. SEPTA itself will have to rate its reserves all the way down to zero over the next five years, and we'll be back in the exact same position,” they explain.
Transit for All PA! proposes “the investment on the order of $537 million per year, to restore service across the Commonwealth to 2019 levels of service,” Descheemaker says. Additionally, they’ve proposed that Governor Shapiro utilize federal highway dollars for mass transit funding to prevent any immediate cuts.
“It is a total misconception that transit is just a Philly issue, or is some sort of bailout for urban areas, when really it operates everywhere,” Descheemaker explains. Public transportation is present in all 67 counties of Pennsylvania; over one million Pennsylvanians use it daily. Such a large deficit in mass transit funding is therefore a bipartisan issue; it won’t just impact SEPTA, but all sorts of public transportation services, from on–call service for elderly or disabled transportation to medical visits. In the fight to maintain PA’s transportation, Descheemaker emphasizes the statewide importance of public transportation especially in a newly red state where the Republican party has historically had a bone to pick with cities.
“All of us will rise or sink together on this issue,” says Alex Milone, the transit committee co–chair of 5th Square, one of Philadelphia’s leading pro–urbanist political action groups. Shapiro’s proposed budget is very moderate, he explains, and would only solve SEPTA’s short–term financial crisis. This budget is used to pay the drivers, the operators, the maintenance staff, and so on. However, infrastructure like rail maintenance or rental from Amtrak is paid for by the capital budget, which wouldn’t be covered by the proposal. “It's basically kicking the can down the road,” Milone says.
“In terms of its impact on the city, it's going to be pretty bad,” he adds. Everything from housing and jobs, to education, healthcare, and mobility for those who can’t drive will be affected. There's even an estimated $276 million social cost of the cut, due to increased car accidents, emissions and operations. “I mean, pick whatever issue is important to you,” he says. “The impact of losing [SEPTA] will impact everyone.”
Transit for All PA!, with the help of 5th Square, is bringing together transit riders, advocates, and workers from outside of Philly and Pittsburgh through monthly organizing calls to encourage transit use and support across the state. They’ve been expecting this cut since the end of COVID–19 relief funding and have been working for months to increase ridership and support a budget increase. Over the past month, the coalition led a pro-transit rally with over 8,000 people in attendance, mobilized over 3,000 to write and call Governor Shapiro, and started to circulate a white paper that proposes tax re–attributions toward the mass transit budget, according to Connor.
5th Square employs their own campaigning methods that appeal to everyone, whether they rely on public transportation for their livelihoods or they’ve never stepped on a bus before. “If you already use the system, you already understand the value, right? So it's kind of like, hey, save your bus,” Milone explains. “The other approach is an appeal to everyone who does not use the system and just drives every day. But, hey, if you think the roads are bad now—SEPTA moves an average of 758,000 trips a day on average. Imagine half of that going to cars. Because these are still people that need to get around … All you have to tell them is to imagine 158,000 cars joining you on I–76 at nine o'clock in the morning.”
Both 5th Square and Transit for All PA! believe that “we shouldn't just have a bare bones budget that gets us through the next couple of years,” Milone says. “We should, as a state, consider public transit an important resource that needs to be provided, right? In the same way that the Postal Service is important, everyone needs this, even if you don't use it on a daily basis. If it disappears, or the service becomes lacking, you will be impacted.”
In order for the state to pass Shapiro’s budget, assuming all Democratic state senators vote to approve it, the votes of only two Republican state senators are required. State Sen. Joe Picozzi (R–PA) and Frank A. Farry (R–PA) both service districts that are serviced by SEPTA’s rail lines and are both generally in support of the company. The two of them are more open than rural areas in the state to understanding the impact that SEPTA’s budget cut will have, though Farry wishes to propose his own budget, though, which worries Milone; however, 5th Square is working to get Philadelphians from Northeast Philly to call him “and tell him, like, you need to get on board. Unintentional pun with the train, right?”
Still, Milone remains incredibly hopeful. “While we have to get this the Senate, the big obstacle, It's not an obstacle that cannot be overcome,” he argues pointing to the recent history of concessions. “You shouldn’t take a look at this and go all ‘hope is lost.’” It’s important that people stay motivated, that people do not lose hope, and that they stay politically engaged, because this is a very winnable topic.”
More locally, Save the Train, a transit coalition of 8,000 members dedicated to the conservation of the Chestnut Hill West line, has been working since early 2024 when SEPTA initially proposed to cut the line. Mount Airy doesn’t have a large enough population to justify the cost of operating both the Chestnut Hill West line and Chestnut Hill East line, which runs on the former Reading Railroad tracks instead of renting use from Amtrak like the Chestnut Hill West.
“To me, we were hit with a freight train, so to speak, in COVID…The ridership numbers are down, and the Republicans are saying, well, since they're down, why are we spending so much to operate it? And honestly, you know, I have to agree with them,” says Bob Previdi, policy director for Save The Train and former Metropolitan Transit Authority planner. “We need to ask ourselves some tough questions: do we want a public transit system? And if we do, then why aren't we using it?”
For the past year, Save The Train has run a fervent campaign, getting over 8,000 people to reach out to officials en masse and running two different tours in Harrisburg to push for more funding. They regularly invite people to photograph themselves using the service and tag elected officials to say they’re watching them. Previdi has also been pushing for a complimentative service, rather than running both Chestnut Hill lines at the same time—as doing so kills ridership on both lines. They’ve also put together a map of major sites and public transportation in Mount Airy to encourage both locals and tourists to use public transit in the area instead of driving. “What I like to tell people is, folks, if we can't convince the Northwest to get out of their Subaru and use public transportation more, then we've lost,” Previdi says, “It feels like we’re losing our soul.”
Munich’s two–track tunnel moves over 840,000 people a day, Previdi explains, while SEPTA’s entire system moves 800,000. Even through Center City, where there’s a four–track railroad, SEPTA only moves 77,000 people a day. “Philadelphians hate it when I say this, but I'm going to pull New York and I'm going to say that's pathetic,” Previdi says. “We are not serious about our public transportation system.”
Logically, he says, the train line should be cut. “But I think doing that is giving up on this vast infrastructure that we have … I think we have to take the hit. I think it's perfectly appropriate to ask the question and demand that the agency get back the 45% in ten years.”
Taking the hit could still be incredibly harmful to our city, with an estimated financial impact of a $20 billion loss on housing values, a $6 billion loss in region–wide job earnings, and an $11.4 billion loss in Net Present Value for local and state governments. Philly has a long history of scraping together funds for its transportation system, with the city and state putting together temporary budgets for SEPTA to survive since the 1980s. Act 89 was the most recent of these lifeline budgets, and was put together after SEPTA threatened to stop all service due to crumbling infrastructure that past budgets had failed to maintain.
“People get frustrated with SEPTA and walk away from it,” Previdi says, “And what we have to realize is you're not punishing SEPTA when you walk away. We're punishing ourselves. And we have to say we want better. We can have nice things. We can have the Munich–esque spot. We can have the Paris RER, we can have the Elizabeth line in London.” He wants Philadelphians to think ahead of the 45% cut, and to envision not just a maintained system, but a better one. “We should be thinking with that kind of a vision. Where do we want to be? I don't want to be in a nice dress or a suit standing on a freezing cold or boiling hot platform,” he says.
There’s still hope. My train may still get cut in the coming year if all the state has to offer is Shapiro’s proposed budget, but with organizations like Transit for All PA!, Save The Train, and 5th Square working towards saving this state’s transportation, I’m trying to ease my pessimistic thinking. If the proposal does fail to pass, though, the loss won’t just be for SEPTA or Philly; it’ll be catastrophic statewide and, according to Connor, will ultimately kill Pennsylvania. Public transportation is the lungs of both urban and rural life, whether or not we all use it.
And so as I sit, three seats back from the front of the car on Chestnut Hill West, I hope, like Descheemaker, Previdi, and Milone, for a future where the train cars are full and for a government that cares for both my livelihood and the livelihoods of every other Pennsylvanian.
