Transit Funding Crisis Deepens

Earlier this year, SMART-TD drew attention to what was quickly becoming an alarming trend: transit agencies across the country were making headlines for funding shortfalls and looming fiscal cliffs, leading to difficult decisions about future service and possible cuts. 
 
Unfortunately, very little about the situation has changed in the past four months while two new noticeable patterns have emerged: even more cities are confronting transit funding gaps and many of those facing the issue in the spring still haven’t agreed on a long-term solution. 
 
Let’s call this what it is: a nationwide transit funding crisis that’s spreading uncontrollably and showing no signs of slowing down. 

Budget Shortfalls Impact Riders, Workers

Elected or transit officials are usually the ones who are the most vocal about this problem, but the impacts will be felt by the riding public and SMART-TD members.  
 
Take the mass transit funding situation unfolding in Pennsylvania as a case in point. 
 
With just days left before SEPTA in Philadelphia signaled it will be forced to cut services without a reliable funding solution, lawmakers are scrambling to pass legislation that would stop the agency’s financial bleeding while also helping the transit system in Pittsburgh.  

If they can’t pass the bill, Philadelphia riders will endure crippling 20% service cuts, which would climb to 45% by the end of the year. Fare increases would also go into effect, just one day before Philadelphia public school students return to class.  
 
With many students in the area relying on public transportation to get to school, those traditional first day of school jitters would be heightened by a lack of a reliable way to even get there.

In addition, many of our SMART-TD transit brothers and sisters work for SEPTA and would undoubtedly be affected (even if not directly) by the service cuts. 
 
The bottom line: this is an unacceptable situation as a result of legislators kicking the can down the road instead of drafting a meaningful action plan. 

The “Pennsylvania Panic” joined by Arizona, Illinois, North Carolina

Regional Transportation Authority officials in Chicago are still in search of a fix for its nearly $800 million budget gap and North Carolinians will decide whether to approve a sales tax referendum to fund public transit when they head to the polls in November.  
 
In Arizona, the Tucson City Council just approved free bus fares while not hiding from the fact that it’s still looking for viable ways to fund public transit, leading one Councilmember to point out the rapidly approaching fiscal “cliff.”  
 
As the problem widens, it has become clear that no city is insulated.

Renewing Our Call to Action

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: all Americans deserve access to reliable, fully funded public transit.   
 
Simply ignoring our deepening, nationwide transit funding crisis will not make it go away; lawmakers at all levels of government must step up and fully fund the transit systems that so many of us rely on every day.  
 
Anything else is a blatant dereliction of duty and a broken promise to protect the constituents who elected them to office.  
 
SMART-TD will continue fighting to ensure that transit systems across the country are fully-funded and our brothers’ and sisters’ jobs are protected.