More bad news (Philadelphia edition)

According to a recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "SEPTA must increase fares by at least 11 percent and perhaps as much as 31 percent, the agency's general manager said yesterday, and she warned of service cuts and employee layoffs unless more money comes from the state. " On top of that, New Jersey Transit has proposed some fare hikes of their own, though not quite so severely (see table below).

Under the most likely of circumstances, "Plan A," a round-trip regional rail fare from Philadelphia to New York will cost at least $39. And then there's the matter of service cuts. I might as well be blunt: there is no more room for service cuts in the SEPTA system. I'm not the first to say it, and I won't be the last, since threatening to cut service is an annual event as old as the Transportation Authority itself. Service is already cut back so far, I can't imagine how revenue can't be suffering as a direct result. At any rate, as per tradition, they'll probably come after my dinky little R6 Cynwyd local, which only runs about dozen round trips a day (and only on weekdays) through Cynwyd, Bala, Wynnefield, 30th Street, and Suburban stations. This is where the newly re-elected Rendell Administration gets to reaffirm its stance on the importance of public transit--as it has in the past--or perhaps reinvent it. For better or for worse, we won't know for a little while, but if you see me walking the 7 miles of right-of-way downtown come summertime, you'll have your answer.