Roxborough is the epicenter of dissent for SEPTA’s bus overhaul

On paper, SEPTA has drawn a new bus network that moves people around the region in logical and efficient ways.

But people don’t live on paper, and as details of the transit agency’s Bus Revolution plan become better known, many riders are raising objections.

Resistance to proposed changes has been most prevalent in Roxborough and Manayunk, hilly neighborhoods that can seem a place apart from the rest of Philadelphia. Residents’ top concern: a proposed loss of two direct one-seat bus connections to Center City in the draft plan.

“We heard you,” Dan Nemiroff, the Bus Revolution project manager, told more than 200 people squeezed into a Roxborough auditorium on Dec. 6. SEPTA planners tweaked the plan, and the area’s bus links to downtown would remain, though with some changes.

More than anything, the give-and-take in Roxborough illustrates the path forward for the proposed redo of Southeastern Pennsylvania’s entire bus network. It’s going to involve negotiation to address community concerns — all while keeping enough changes to make the bus service more efficient.

“We’re not doing a check-the-box sort of exercise [but] trying to get it right, to make our bus network more useful to more people,” Ryan Judge, director of strategic planning and analysis for SEPTA, said in an earlier interview.

The Bus Revolution aims to make service more reliable, with less time between buses on heavily used lines and straighter routes pruned out of often-confusing variations of trips — all things riders say in surveys that they want.

Yet specifics rub against the comfort of familiar bus routes that have been part of daily life for years. SEPTA has not made major changes to its bus network in nearly six decades.

» READ MORE: Everything we know about SEPTA’s plan to remake bus service in Philly, and how it could affect your route

City Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr., who represents Roxborough-Manayunk and West Philly, has been hearing complaints about proposed changes from both areas. SEPTA staff should start over “from scratch,” he wrote in a recent letter to the agency’s CEO, Leslie S. Richards.

“In my district, there’s going to be a counterrevolution,” Jones said. “They gave it a snappy name, said it was about efficiency. Truth is, they’re making cuts. I’d rather them be more honest.”

“In my district, there’s going to be a counterrevolution.”

For Roxborough, the plan’s Routes 9 and 27, which now travel down the Schuylkill Expressway and go deep into Center City — Route 9 along Chestnut and Walnut Street and Route 27 down Broad Street — would have ended at 30th Street Station, where riders could transfer to the Market-Frankford El or other bus lines.

That was a no-go for many in Roxborough. People said transferring to buses at 30th Street is confusing, and some expressed fear over rising crime on the El and a perception of disorder. In addition, older people or those with disabilities would have to negotiate several flights of stairs to get to the train.

“I just feel safer on the bus,” said Sheryl Neckritz, a retiree in her early 60s who lives in Manayunk, at the Roxborough border. “On the bus, you can see what’s happening on the street, and people there can see in.” A subway operator can’t see other cars on the train, she said, but bus drivers can more easily keep an eye on passengers.

The biggest seller of the bus routes is convenience.

“The 27 is an express with stops near my house,” Neckritz said. “It’s crowded every time I’m on it.”

She and her husband ride the bus to cultural events on the Avenue of the Arts, shopping, restaurants, or City Hall. And she also takes her bike on the bus to go ride the Schuylkill Trail.

Under the changed plans revealed Tuesday, what is now Route 9 would become a local, taking Ridge Avenue to Broad, then heading to South Philly. The current Route 27 would be an express, using the Schuylkill Expressway, but would exit at 30th Street and travel through Center City on Market Street and JFK Boulevard.

Several residents said they were glad SEPTA listened, but many also still had questions and criticism. For one thing, the local to Broad Street would lengthen the trip, and parents worried that their children who use SEPTA buses to get to schools in Center City would have to get up even earlier than they do now and come home later.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s been the way it is for years,” said James Dougherty, a Roxborough community activist. The changes “would cause havoc.”

At one point during the meeting, some shouted “Nooo!” or booed when they learned the “new” Route 9 would go through North Philadelphia on its way to Broad Street, which one commenter called a “war zone.” Others termed that characterization racist.

Roxborough has an extra challenge because of what neighbors called an explosion of development, with thousands of new apartments in the last few years and less parking than the city typically requires.

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“Apartment buildings keep going up, on almost every lot,” Neckritz said. “If SEPTA were to cut service, that would be a disaster.”

Any urbanist would tell you that transit is essential to dense, walkable neighborhoods.

At meetings and hearings in person and online over the last several months, people in other neighborhoods expressed similar concerns as those heard in Roxborough, especially about public safety and violent crime in the city.

“The subway isn’t even safe,” said Jermaine Ridley, participating in a virtual meeting last month about South Philadelphia bus service. Some proposed changes encourage transferring to the Broad Street Line. To get more people comfortable on the subway, Ridley said, SEPTA needs to spend money on more police officers doing visible patrols.

The Bus Revolution is going to be revenue-neutral, meaning its improvements could be achieved without additional capital investments, SEPTA said.

» READ MORE: 5 takeaways from SEPTA’s safety plan

Bethany Whitaker, the consultant working with SEPTA on the process, said no services would be cut, rather reallocated from routes with low ridership to busier ones. That service would be more frequent, the Bus Revolution plan says.

“We only have a certain amount of resources,” said Whitaker, a principal with Nelson/Nygaard consulting. “We want to provide complementary service, but not duplicative service.”

The alternative to reallocation could eventually be cuts in bus service across the board, Nemiroff said.

SEPTA launched bus redesign efforts after ridership declined 13% from 2013 to 2019, a change attributed to slow speeds, problems with reliability, and competition from ride-sharing companies. And that was before COVID-19.

The bus network has rebounded from pandemic shutdowns more quickly than other travel modes the authority operates — with daily ridership on buses about 40% below 2019 levels.

“It really all comes down to the loss of ridership,” Nemiroff said.