Mayor Parker wants to defund a program that provides free transit passes for low-income people
By mid-March Zero Fare participants had taken about 6.6 million trips on SEPTA since the program started about 18 months ago.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s budget will not include money to continue the experimental Zero Fare program that gives free SEPTA passes to about 25,000 Philadelphia residents living in poverty, helping them reach jobs, medical appointments and other destinations.
When Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke asked during a lengthy Council hearing Tuesday whether the program was being eliminated, an administration official said it was.
For days, sources familiar with Zero Fare said it appeared the administration was defunding the initiative, and concern was growing louder among advocates for public transit and for people benefiting from the passes.
The urbanist PAC 5th Square sent out a mass email Tuesday asking people to sign an online petition urging Parker and City Council to keep the program going.
As of mid-March, Zero Fare participants had taken about 6.6 million trips on SEPTA since the program started in the late summer of 2023, the transit agency said. In the last three months of 2024, passholders took an average of 100,000 trips a week.
“If you make $24,000 a year, the $2.50 SEPTA fare is a bigger cost burden than for someone making $80,000,” said Morgan Allgrove-Hodges, cochair of 5th Square’s transit committee. “It would be great if we could continue serving people who really need it. … Users have called it life-changing.”
Sharon Gallagher, a spokesperson for the city managing director’s office, said the city would still do a planned formal evaluation of Zero Fare, funded by the William Penn Foundation, and share it in spring 2026.
Gallagher said the city would be meeting with SEPTA to talk about options for the program.
While several large metro transit agencies have reduced fares for low-income people, experts said Philadelphia’s two-year pilot program offered the most generous benefit, with no limitations on the number of trips or the SEPTA services covered.
“This initiative helped remove cost as a barrier to transit for thousands of residents,” spokesperson Andrew Busch said in a statement. “SEPTA will continue to collaborate with the city, and we look forward to the city’s formal evaluation of the program’s benefits.”
SEPTA does not fund a reduced-fare program for low-income customers. It’s also facing a $230 million deficit in the current fiscal year and considering service cuts and fare increases, while lobbying Harrisburg to spend more money supporting transit around the state.
“With SEPTA fighting for funding, this is a also a bad time for them to lose these trips,” Allgrove-Hodges said, adding that the transit agency is still trying to rebuild ridership after the pandemic.
Unless more money for Zero Fare is added to the budget during negotiations between the mayor and council members, the program is due to run out of funds by June 30.
Former Mayor Jim Kenney proposed Zero Fare during his March 2023 budget address, when he also unveiled a plan to give city employees reduced-cost SEPTA Key Advantage cards. The program for employees is slated to continue.
People living at or near the federal poverty standard have been eligible for the SEPTA passes. For 2025, that is $15,650 for an individual and $32,150 for a family of four.
To pick 90% of the low-income recipients of the free Key Cards, city officials held a lottery for people between the ages of 18 and 64 who had received a benefit targeted at low-income households within the previous year. The idea was to ensure that eligible people would not face the further burden of red tape in applying for the benefit.
The share of Philadelphia residents earning less than the federal poverty standard was 20.3% in 2023, according to survey data from the U.S. Census.
Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke’s first name.