US representative Brendan Boyle warned on Monday that planned Septa cuts could force Amtrak to cut the Keystone service line from Philadelphia to Harrisburg.
The line, which lasts from Philadelphia to Manhattan, would also mean fewer trains operating from Philadelphia to New York.
Boyle said that President Amtrak Roger Harris told him last week that the railway could lose $ 71.1 million annual payments from Sept due to delay in state operational funds for transit agency.
If this happens, the Keystone service line “will cease to exist,” Boyle said.
SEPTA pays for the right to run five regional trains commuting to work in a queue in the north-east corridor, which includes a track between Philadelphia and Harrisburg.
It plans to eliminate these lines in January if recent state money is not in the way by that time. The Paoli-Thorndale line divides the Keystone route.
»Read more: Close Paoli/Thorndale? Many say that Septa uses the threat as a lever.
The payment of a transit agency also buys electricity generated by Amtrak, to power suburban trains on these tracks and pays for some capital projects.
Keystone runs many travels a day between the New York Penn station and Harrisburg, via 30th Street. In 2024 1.3 million passengers, according to Amtrak.
“Roger Harris explained to me that Amtrak did not have additional funds to catch up with the missing fund,” Boyle said. “I think you can safely say [this is] Now at the crisis level and directly affects us all who live in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia area. “
The Amtrak representative did not answer immediately at the request for comment.
“Septa does not know how the elimination of regional railway services on the lines belonging to Amtrak will affect the Keystone service service,” said Septa spokesman Andrew Busch in a statement.
“We understand that Amtrak will have to make decisions in the coming weeks, whether to stop or postpone infrastructure projects on the Keystone line in response to the planned elimination of the Selt leasing payment on January 1,” said Busch.
The Transport Department in Pennsylvania brings about $ 8 million a year to subsidize the Keystone line, pulled out of the multimodal fund and public transport trust fund.
»Read more: Is there actually $ 1 billion in the septa fund? Explanation of the Public Transport Fund.
Amtrak runs a number of lines in the US in cooperation with state transport departments.
The Keystone service line is also a train that legislators who are currently debating the financing of SEPTA from the south -eastern part of the state to Harrisburg.
Boyle said that there was no determination when the line would stop working.
Members of the Congress representing the south -eastern Pennsylvania largely stood out of the way, offering statements calling for legislators in Harrisburg to finance the besieged agency, but with limited power to influence the situation. Boyle said that the problem was achieved by the “crisis level”, but he remained the problem of Harrisburg to solve, not Washington.
Boyle, whose district includes parts of the Center City and the entire northeastern Philadelphia, noticed that the Congress provided record federal funds to SEPTA to improve capital under the draft Act on infrastructure Act 2021.
Financing Pennsylvania appears when the white house of President Donald Trump reduced the financing of transit and infrastructure projects throughout the country, which makes all rescue due to the small rescue due to the Little Congress controlled by the Republicans.
Boyle, a democrat who had previously served in the House of Representatives in Pennsylvania, warned the Republicans in Harrisburg, saying that transit agencies in other cities, including Boston, Chicago and New York, will obtain much more state financing. All three cities are in controlled states by democratic.
Pennsylvania has a divided state house and a division into rural-city, which contributes to the impasse.
Republicans of the Senate – who adopted a bill last week proposing to finance SEPT for two years, using capital funds, smuggling Democrats – defended their plan and accused Democrats of the production of crisis.
»Read more: Is there actually $ 1 billion in the septa fund? Explanation of the Public Transport Fund.
“Transit” Crisis “is not real. The conversation of SEPTA’s “Spiral of Death” contains a hostage of Pennsylvanian, “said the leader of the Senate GOP Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland) to X.” The Senate adopted provisions on ensuring immediate, existing, available funds. “
But Boyle directed his finger back to GOP on Monday.
“This is a problem that the leaders in Harrisburg have ignored for years, and let’s be sincere, it is also a policy victim,” said Boyle. “Too many Republicans in Pennsylvania love to defeat in Philadelphia. They take on tax revenues from the city of Philadelphia and the suburbs … and then they turn around and do not make appropriate investments that are needed in septa.”
