SEPTA postpones long-planned bus route overhaul amid likely fare hikes and service cuts

The revolution has been postponed.

SEPTA’s long-planned reorganization of the region’s bus network, designed to make trips more frequent and reliable, is now on hold as authority officials plan for a fare increase and deep cuts in transit service.

The decision to halt the Bus Revolution program was characterized as an indefinite “suspension.”

Earlier this week, SEPTA announced a plan for a fare increase across all transit modes that would have riders begin paying 29% more on New Year’s Day, followed by cuts in service next summer.

Those moves were billed as responses to an untenable fiscal situation caused by an operating budget deficit, soaring costs, and the failure of Harrisburg to deliver increased aid for state public transportation providers.

“If we have to do the service cuts, we can’t do Bus Revolution because we’d be cutting so much of the existing network,” SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said. “We’d be moving in the opposite direction” of the program’s intent, he said.

Implementation of the changes had been scheduled for mid-2025.

SEPTA awarded a $3 million contract to transportation consultants Nelson/Nygaard for the project. It spent money on other preparations to implement the plan, but figures were not immediately available.

The plan was approved in May after a long public-engagement process that was extended, including once for several months at the insistence of some members of City Council for more hearings.

SEPTA undertook the overhaul in 2021 in hopes of reversing a slide in bus ridership that began several years before the pandemic, due to slow speeds, increasing unreliability, and changes in travel patterns.

Agency staff also had been studying other bus system redesigns for four years beforehand. It was to be the first comprehensive revamping of the bus network since SEPTA opened in 1964.

In addition to planned fare hikes and service cuts, which were announced this week, SEPTA has been in negotiations with its largest bargaining unit, Transport Workers Union Local 234, a 5,000-member body that represents bus, subway, and trolley operators, mechanics, cashiers, maintenance workers, and custodians. TWU’s contract expired last week and the membership voted unanimously on Oct. 27 to authorize a strike.