People drive a sept bus in Philadelphia. (Thanks to the kindness of Getty Images)
Because students from Philadelphia are preparing to return to school on Monday, the south -eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (Septa) advises them to develop a plan from that time service cuts They are to come into force at the weekend.
“We never wanted to be in this situation,” said Scott Sauer, Selta General Director during a press conference on Friday. “Receiving the service is contrary to everything we try to do in septa.”
“We hope that in the coming days of progress in Harrisburg towards a long-term sustainable solution to financing public transport,” he added. “So it was the disturbances for our clients, our city and the region as short as possible.”
Without a financing package approved by the General Assembly, SEPTA has been warning for months that they would have to Continue cutting services and tariff raises. Starting from Sunday, the authority will limit service on all buses, meters and prams by 20%. The regional railway will be reduced on September 2. Tariffs are increasing They are also to come into force on September 1.
Second wave of solemn service cuts will take place in JanuaryIf state financing is not approved for mass transport services throughout the community of nations.
SEPTA serves about 800,000 people per day in the Philadelphia region. Above 50,000 students at high school and high school rely on This Every day to get to school.
“Reductions of services will affect students, just like all our riders,” said Sauer.
“This weekend we encourage students and their families to review the service plan, which we have at septa.org to see how cuts will affect them,” advised Sauer. “Order a trip to school and from school.”
As part of the preparation for service cuts, Sauer said that Septa tried to “pick up as much pain as possible”, and noted that with the elimination of some bus routes there will be alternative services nearby, although more walking and transfer may be needed. They said that additional time for riders would be needed when they got used to these changes.
In the body they will have ambassadors stationed in Transit Hubs who assist riders in questions.
Charles Lawson, head of the sept transit police, said the agency has a school security plan, like years earlier. However, he admitted that the upcoming cuts of services provided some changes.
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Lawson said that SEPTA will raise staff during students’ travel, “virtually double” employees, when most students travel to the system, assign video patrols to locations where they do not have the vigorous presence of the police, and raise concentration on bus services and bus routes.
“We enter the school year, planning to increase the presence of the police along with a dozen or so routes throughout the city,” said Lawson.
He noticed that the police would be on buses along these routes.
A novel supplement, said Lawson, will be a daily morning conversation with the school police. Also encouraged to apply Sept transit watch The application, so that students can report everything they see, which makes them feel unsafe.
Sports fans were also informed about the upcoming cuts of services, because Philadelphia Phillies have a game on Sunday – the first day in which the reductions were taken into account.
Where do things stand in the State Chamber and Senate?
Funding of mass transit was front and center during a seven week budget deadlock.
The State Chamber, managed by Democrats, has repeatedly served regulations that would finance mass transport agencies, as well as roads and bridges. Their last efforts were Bill House 1788Author: Rep. Sean Dougherty (D-philadelphia), which would provide $ 600 million to mass transit, roads and bridges, while increasing responsibility for transit agencies and public-private projects.
The Senate, headed by the Republicans, replied, issuing a proposal that would provide about $ 300 million to the mass transport agency for the next two years. This proposal would also take money from the public transit fund to spend on roads and bridges. . Committee for the CHAMBER He rejected this measure.
Democrats and Republicans become contrary to how much he should go towards transit agencies, such as Septa and where this money should come from.
In response to the question on Friday, Sauer said that Septa needs operational dollars and capital dollars.
“So taking from one pot to get to another is not a balanced solution,” said Sauer. “I suppose it may be a quick repair. But they decide for them. But we have to focus at the moment and moment at the moment on duty.”
If the General Assembly reached the contract in the next 48 hours, Sauer said that Septa would do “everything” to postpone the service as soon as possible on the street as soon as possible.
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“But it will be very difficult for us to restore the service in a way that the client would be used to,” said Sauer. “There are many facilities that provide both information and the security of operations in which we would have to enter and manipulate to return to the normal schedule.”
“So, although I do not rule out that it is possible to return to the appearance of normality to Monday or Sunday, when the clock is forward, it is increasingly difficult to do it,” he added.
In addition to the services changing into sept due to the current budget impasse, others agencies and service providers There are also an alarm.
On Friday, the Association of Commissioners of Ferrings in Pennsylvania He sent a letter Legislators claiming that without the state budget “poviats may have no other choice but to raise real estate taxes and reduce services – directly affecting taxpayers due to the inactivity of the state.”
