Overview

• SEPTA has enacted roughly 20% service reductions, eliminating 32 bus lines and shortening 16 others as it confronts a projected $213 million operating deficit for FY2026.
• A 21.5% fare hike begins Sept. 1, lifting the base bus and metro fare to $2.90, and all 13 Regional Rail lines face reductions starting Tuesday with many shifting to hourly service and less frequent weekends.
• The City will fund restorations targeted to students starting Tuesday, adding service on routes 14, 20, 23, 26, 47, 63, 67, 70, 82, T2 and T5 and bringing back the 31 (Overbrook Park to 63rd & Market), 84, 88 and student-focused 400-series routes, at an estimated $1 million per month.
• Philadelphia’s advance draws on its $135 million transit subsidy after earlier plans to withhold a portion pending state aid, with detailed schedules for some restored lines to post in mid-September.
• A lawsuit filed in Common Pleas Court seeks to halt the cuts for alleged disparate impacts on low-income and minority riders, while top negotiators in Harrisburg now signal conditional openness to using the Public Transportation Trust Fund with backfilling and new recurring revenue; employers, unions and schools report mounting disruptions, including impacts on at least 5,200 Catholic school students.