
Buses, trains and prams allow their lives.
In particular, they bought their houses near transit lines.
If their local routes stop working, they will have to buy a second car or move to another district.
And they demand that the State Senate give septa funds needed to avoid catastrophic cuts.
These were some of the messages that the riders and supporters of transit repeated during public interrogation in Septa on Monday, the first of several agencies, which has a plan to close dozens of routes and pointed wandering.
Lauren Montgomery, a volunteer supervisor at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, said that most of her colleagues are going to work and it would not be possible to drive and find a parking lot. She said that patients were “afraid” of the perspective of lack of access to treatment.
“They talk to us. They ask us what they are going to do. Will their families be able to come to them? Will they leave the meetings?” She said. “So I’m not dramatic when I say it is a situation of life or death.”
A resident of Northern Liberties, Tyler Combs, said that there is no car, and he and his partner rely on transit to get on critical visits, games at South Philly stadiums and center city entertainment.
Closing the routes “will force me to limit participation in arts, musicals and orchestral performances, which I love to see on Aleja Sztuki, because without reliable buses or night service in L or BSL I will not be able to go home,” he said. “The cutting sept will kill business and kill culture.”
Some speakers, like Corine Acosta’s pensioner, were practically in tears when they told the board and the management of Sept, how much they depend on the services of the transit authority.
“This is the only way we could move. I can’t even go, because my arthritis is so bad and I have to get to SEPTA to go to the hospital,” said Acosta, who lives in Center City. “Now they want to cut you out. It’s not fair. They forget about what this city is and what the city has been doing for years.”
“System significantly reduced”
The transient general director of SEPTA, Scott Sauer and other directors, explained at the beginning of the hearing that the agency is in the face of an annual deficit of $ 213 million, which attributed to “sharp inflationary pressure” and the end of federal assistance in pandemic support last year.
For example, the costs of SEPTA electricity increased by 25% from a year earlier, and the cost of the Paratransit service required by regulation for disabled riders increased by 16%, said budget director Erik Johanson. He said that Septa also spends much more on the police and cleaners to boost customer satisfaction and recovery of riders after spandemic driving.
At the same time, he established savings and revenues, such as partial employment and freezing of wages, up-to-date parking fees and a tariff boost in December, which helped reduce the structural deficit from $ 240 million last year. As Johanson said, all further savings will require cuts.

From August, the budget plan would initially eliminate 32 bus routes, shorten 16 others and reduce the service of other lines. The tariffs would boost another 21.5%, which led to the expected decrease in the rider.
In January, SEPTA closed another 12 bus routes, the B3 (Broad-Ridge Spur) metro line and five regional railway lines: Cinnwyd, Chesznut Hill West, Paoli/Thorndale, Trenton and Wilmington/Newark. T1 and G carts would become bus lines, and the whole system stopped working after 21:00 each night.
The other riders will “experience a significantly reduced system, overcrowded buses and trains with customers regularly transmitted. Those who abandon the transit system and decide to ride, experience roads complex in mesh,” said Jody Holton, chief planning and strategy officer.

Last year, Governor Josh Shapiro prevented cuts, transferring some federal infrastructure funds to Septa, but this year the Federal Federal Flex Highway Federal Flex is not available, “said Johanson.
Democrats Shapiro and State House proposed to spend more income from sales tax on mass transport in the whole state, but Republicans who have most of the Senate have so far rejected this idea, citing the long -term deficit of the state’s structural budget and the relative lack of transit in rural and sending districts they represent.
They discussed the creation of a up-to-date tax on vending machines that can potentially pay for more transit financing, but have not yet introduced the invoice. Other legislators proposed legalization and Taxation of recreational sales of marijuanaimpressive New charges for car rental and services related to driving available like Uber and allowing poviats impose up-to-date types of local taxes Especially for transport.
To prevent the reduction of services and increasing the tariffs, each financing solution would have to stay in place at the beginning of the following tax year on July 1.
Gridlock visions
Many of the dozens of people who lined up in a queue to speak at the Monday morning interrogation at the headquarters of the Septa Market Street or who called testimonies, described very specific conditions of travel in their districts, which make transit necessary for their daily lives.
Bonita Tyes said that she began to travel regularly when she was a student of West Chester University in Chester, because “West Chester is a terrible place for cars.” She said that some students take buses to the school campus in Philadelphia and try to continue their classes without them.
“If people don’t have a way to get here, what are they supposed to do?” She asked. “Should people just walk around Lancaster Avenue? To take Uber, it is from 30 to 50 USD to go from 20 miles, depending on the time of day. It’s as if we couldn’t without an alternative.”

Professor Professor Jennifer Ponce de León was one of the few speakers who claimed that she had chosen her home especially because she was close to Transit, in her case the Cheshstnut Hill West line.
Like others, she said that without simple access to the train, her family could buy a second car – “only one example of many people who would be forced to use more and more cars, which is … extremely ecologically destructive, with our air pollution. Our highways are already overwhelming and dangerous.”
Will Tung, firefighter and transit activist Who lives in Kingsessing, said that his family is “completely dependent” on prams to take his daughter to school and wife to work. He also noted that it is expected that the planned cuts would bring 300,000 more cars every day to the city.
“It is as if every person in Pittsburgh, including children, everyone decided to get into the car, their own car and drive on our streets in Philadelphia, which is completely destructive, completely destructive,” he said. “So thank you, Septa, for doing what you can to talk to legislators in Harrisburg, to make sure that this spiral of death will not happen.”
Fears of hitting the whole condition
The speakers admitted that although they addressed their complaints and fears to the management and management of the SEPTA, their real goals are republican legislators, whom they should not break the financial impasse.
Brandon Blue, a recent graduate of the temple who will volunteer in the 5th Square of the Spokes down, argued that the legislators have long made Sept efforts to expand their services and must understand why you would suffer if it were dismantled.
“We can make a group effort to stand against the Senate to the Republicans who have stopped us for decades, but to do this, we must engage more people in this issue,” he said. Supporters should “meet and say the Senate, look because Philadelphias have a lot to offer, and we are an important city with a system that significantly contributes to Pennsylvania [economy]. “

While the majority Job loss and other economic anxiety Expected that it will take out the cuts of services will affect the five-Hrabic Septa region, the economic analysis ordered by the agency showed that the whole state in the entire state will fall in the amount of $ 241 million of several types of tax revenues.
In addition, if there is no boost in financing, transit agencies in Pittsburgh and a number of other regions may be forced to make cuts, except Sept.
“I blame the majority of the State Senate in Harrisburg, who decided to support riders, operators and operators throughout the Pennsylvania community,” said Combs, a resident of Northern Liberties. “These officials, many of whom have never traveled or have been endowed with the costs of the car, prefer to play political games with our lives and clog the arteries of Pennsylvania’s economy, that our economic heart would not collapse than the SEPTA fund and other transit agencies.”

The trial was preceded by a market for the SEPTA market, in which members of the City Council and several state legislators from the five -chair region of the agency participated.
Other Public interrogation about the budget It took place on Monday afternoon, and subsequent interrogations are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at 10 am, and the Management Board of SEPTA will be a regular meeting on Thursday at 15:00 and will vote on the budget on June 26.