Ridership is up and crime is down, but SEPTA faces a challenging future | Editorial

SEPTA is on the right track as it continues to recover from the pandemic. But a series of emerging challenges — including the resignation of its chief executive, a possible strike, and uncertainty about state funding levels — threaten that positive momentum, and the public transportation system’s future remains precarious.

Overall, there is plenty of good news for the often-beleaguered agency. September saw an average of nearly 800,000 riders on weekdays. That’s short of the nearly one million who rode the system in 2019, but it’s roughly in line with figures from 2016.

Not only is ridership up, but crime is down. There’s been a 45% year-over-year reduction in serious incidents on the system. New train cars are set to replace those currently in use on the deteriorating Market-Frankford Line, and modern, accessible trams — initially ordered during the Jimmy Carter administration — are also due to arrive soon.

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However, the slow recovery and the end of federal COVID-19 relief funds have left the agency facing a fiscal cliff — a $240 million budget deficit — after Harrisburg Republicans declined to approve the additional funding the agency had asked for.

Failure to address this shortage could lead to what agency officials call a “death spiral” in which service cuts and fare increases lead to fewer people on SEPTA, which further erodes fare revenue, leads to more cuts, and traps the system in a doom loop.

Dealing with the financial strain by itself would be hard enough, but SEPTA is also facing the departure of its general manager and CEO, Leslie S. Richards, and at least two unions gearing up for a potential strike.

It is a strike SEPTA officials should work to avoid at all costs.

The 1983 labor action on SEPTA’s Regional Rail system, the longest in the agency’s history, led to a 60% reduction in ridership, according to researcher Jake Berman, a decline that took decades to reverse. Any protracted strike now would weaken the system’s post-pandemic ridership recovery, which is essential to not only the agency’s bottom line but also the region’s success.

The operators’ unions’ demands for increased pay and safer working conditions seem reasonable — if harder to produce given SEPTA’s current financial circumstances. Yet, delivering on both would have a positive impact on the entire system. Current wages have driven operator shortages that often lead to late or missing buses and subways — which is precisely the kind of unpredictability that keeps many potential users from depending on public transportation.

While SEPTA may not have the financial capacity to issue the 10% raises union officials have asked for, it can and should build upon its recent progress in combating bad behavior on the system.

Public safety issues impact riders, but they impact operators more. No matter how long anyone’s commute is, it is not eight hours a day, five days a week. Operators have been spat on and shot at and often may have to provide a ride to a customer who has already been abusive. Bad behavior has been reported by both urban and suburban operators. Stronger enforcement of the existing rules and better protection for workers are necessary demands.

SEPTA must also find a qualified replacement for the outgoing Richards, whose tenure provides important lessons for her successor.

Bus Revolution, Trolley Modernization, Key Advantage, and Reimagining Regional Rail programs, all Richards-driven initiatives, represent essential reforms for SEPTA’s future. Still, she steered $40 million of pandemic relief funds to the misguided King of Prussia rail extension that ended up facing a federal veto and was too slow to fix public safety problems on the system.

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Transit Police staffing shortages worsened under her watch and made it harder to address an increase in antisocial and violent behavior on public transit. At one point, Transit Police was 50 officers short, representing nearly a quarter of its ranks. Richards also stuck with SEPTA’s well-meaning reform of penalties for smoking and fare evasion for too long. The failure to enforce these violations and to apply substantive penalties led to an increase in these behaviors. It also exacerbated tensions with workers, who felt their concerns were not being taken seriously.

Richards’ successor must build on her ambition and learn from her missteps.

Despite failing to secure critical funding in the General Assembly this fall, SEPTA has one more opportunity next year. While the recent election did not shift the balance of power in either chamber, the so far recalcitrant Senate Republicans have exchanged a seat in Harrisburg for one in Northeast Philadelphia held by State Sen.-elect Joe Picozzi.

For Picozzi, delivering for SEPTA financially would be an impressive way to begin his tenure. Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s House Democrats must stand firm on the budget, refusing to support any version that doesn’t include adequate funding for SEPTA and other transit systems.

After all, the region’s economy depends on public transit, and a death spiral looms.