PHILADELPHIA — The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority will begin service cuts on Aug. 24 after the agency’s Thursday, Aug. 14, deadline passed for funding to avert the service reductions.
According to a statement from the agency released early today (Aug. 15, 2025), “With no new funding secured, SEPTA must proceed with work to implement service cuts of 20% starting on Aug. 24. If a funding solution is reached, SEPTA will work as quickly as possible to reverse course and minimize disruptions for our customers. We remain hopeful that a funding agreement can be reached soon in Harrisburg.”
Cuts to bus and Metro rail will take place Aug. 24-25, and will be followed by a 21.5% fare increase on Sept. 1 and cuts to Regional Rail Service on Sept. 2. The initial cuts will see elimination of 32 bus routes and frequency reductions for all rail service. Details are outlined here.
SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer had previously said the 10 days between the funding deadline and the start of service reductions is “the bare minimum that we need to complete the multitude of tasks required to ensure we can safely and efficiently transition service to new timetables.”
The cuts — a second round of which would take place in January 2026 — reflect the agency’s $213 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that began July 1. Both houses of the state legislature, now 45 days past its July 1 deadline to pass a new budget, have passed bills that would provide $292 million in transit funding statewide — but disagree where that money would come from. The Democrat-controlled House, in its most recent bill, called for the money to come from state sales tax [see “Pennsylvania House again passes …,” Trains.com, Aug. 12, 2025], while the Republican-controlled Senate called for much of the money to be drawn from funding for capital projects [see “Pennsylvania Senate passes budget …,” Trains.com, Aug. 13, 2025].
Pittsburgh Regional Transit, which is facing its own $100 million deficit, has passed a budget that would include 35% in service cuts and a fare increase beginning in February [see “Pittsburgh transit agency approves budget …,” Trains.com, June 30, 2025]. It has said it can act as late as September to avoid those cuts.
