DOVER, Del. — Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer is calling for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to continue service on a commuter rail line that reaches into the state, pledging to help find a method to keep the trains running.
The Delaware News Journal reports that Meyer, a Democrat who took office this year, wrote the SEPTA board on Tuesday, May 20, saying riders in Delaware and Pennsylvania depend on Wilmington/Newark Regional Rail line” for quick and efficient travel, to get by and build a better life for themselves and their families. … Delaware is ready to collaborate closely with SEPTA and Pennsylvania leaders to find solutions that ensure service continues without disruption.”
Service on the 13-station, 41.1-mile Wilmington/Newark line — the longest in SEPTA’s Regional Rail Network — includes four stations over about 20 miles in Delaware: Claymont, Wilmington, and two in Newark: Churchmans Crossing and Newark. It is among the five Regional Rail routes SEPTA has included in its plans for a 45% cut in service to address a $213 million budget deficit, unless the Pennsylvania legislature comes up with additional funding. [See “SEPTA prepares for major service cuts,” Trains News Wire, April 10, 2025].
While the service agreement between SEPTA and the Delaware Transit Corp. calls for mutual agreement and a 90-day notice before operations can be changed, a Delaware Department of Transportation representative told the newspaper a clause allows SEPTA to terminate the service with a 60-day notice if Pennsylvania does not provide sufficient funding. The budget proposed by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) would provide revenue from sales and use taxes to fund transit in the state, but Republicans in the state Senate have blocked that proposal.
In 2024, the route averaged 4,172 riders on weekdays, ranking eighth among the 13 Regional Rail lines. As of January, the line’s ridership was at 51% of pre-pandemic levels, with recovery having peaked at 66% of 2019 levels in May 2024.
SEPTA will conclude three days of public hearings on its proposed budget and service reductions today.
According to https://recovery.septa.org/ , ridership across all of Regional Rail is over 70% recovered. This line lags behind some of the others.
Regional rail is in trouble if ridership is down by half.
I cannot know, but I do suspect, that the biggest drops in ridership on regional rail have been on the longer hauls, such as to Delaware on SEPTA, or to Harvard or Kenosha on METRA. This is an issue that needs to be looked into. We haven’t yet seen ridership numbers on MBTA’s new routes to the South Coast cities of New Bedford and Fall River. It might not be a pretty picture.