With the clock ticking and the fate of public transit in Pennsylvania hanging in the balance, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives took decisive action on August 11, 2025, passing a sweeping transportation funding bill aimed at averting massive service cuts to SEPTA, the state’s largest transit agency. The bill, House Bill 1788, passed by a razor-thin margin of 108-95, over the objections of nearly every Republican in the chamber, and now faces an uncertain future in the state Senate.
For SEPTA, which serves the greater Philadelphia region and is the sixth-largest public transit system in the United States, the stakes could hardly be higher. Agency officials have repeatedly warned that, without a guarantee of increased state funding by August 14, they will be forced to begin implementing drastic service reductions starting August 24—just one day before Philadelphia’s public school students return to class. These cuts, described by SEPTA leadership as more severe than any previously undertaken by a major U.S. transit agency, would eliminate 32 bus routes, shorten 16 others, slash service on key rail lines, and impose a 9 p.m. curfew on metro and Regional Rail service. Special event trains, including those for sports and concerts, would also disappear.
“These cuts will be devastating to my neighbors to get to work, school and medical appointments. These cuts will also impact my neighbors who do not use SEPTA by adding 275,000 more vehicles to our already congested roads,” warned State Rep. Sean Dougherty, the Philadelphia Democrat who sponsored the bill, according to reporting from WPVI and WHYY. “One hundred thousand people commute into Center City, Philadelphia, each day, but there are only 45,000 parking spaces. I don't know about you all, but I hate traffic. My neighbors are out of time. We are out of time!”
The urgency is palpable. SEPTA’s general manager, Scott Sauer, explained that the authority needs a ten-day lead time to update schedules, digital signage, and train routing systems to accommodate the new, reduced service plan. “We just can’t wait any longer than that to get everything in motion to ensure that that goes off as smoothly as possible, and as safely as possible, for our customers and our workforce,” said SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch, according to WHYY.
At the heart of the crisis is a budget deficit that reached at least $213 million as of July 2025. The House-approved bill would increase state aid to transit agency operations by $292 million, representing a 25% boost, with the lion’s share going to SEPTA. The bill also raises the portion of sales tax revenue dedicated to transit and road projects, without increasing taxes on Pennsylvanians—a key selling point for its Democratic supporters. “This is a bill that not only funds mass transit throughout the commonwealth, but it also provides for funding for roads and bridges in our rural communities in the state as well,” Dougherty said. “So, this does numerous things such as, you know, funds transit without raising taxes, provides the most significant transit funding increase in over 10 years.”
In an effort to win over skeptics, particularly in the Republican-controlled Senate, Democrats included additional provisions: up to $325 million in borrowing authority for highway projects, $275 million for rural road improvements, and new accountability and performance standards for both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh transit agencies. The bill also includes measures to crack down on fare evasion, a frequent complaint among transit critics.
Despite these overtures, Republican senators have so far resisted the call for increased transit funding. Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman issued a statement saying only that the chamber would “consider options to address the consequences of a budget impasse” when it convened on August 12, leaving open the question of whether any action on the transit bill would occur. GOP State Senator Frank Farry, who represents Bucks County, has argued for a different approach: using new revenues from taxing so-called “skill games”—a form of gambling currently outside the state’s regulatory framework—to create a recurring funding stream for transit. “That re-occurring revenue probably comes from bringing the skill games fully under the Gaming Control Act and treating it like any other gaming machine, which would generate the re-occurring revenue year in and year out,” Farry told NBC10. However, his proposal failed to advance out of committee.
The political divide is not strictly along party lines. While nearly all House Republicans opposed the bill, some Bucks County Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues in supporting it, recognizing the potential impact on their constituents if SEPTA’s service were gutted. According to the Bucks County Courier Times, Democratic state Reps. Perry Warren, Tim Brennan, Tina Davis, and Brian Munroe all voted in favor, along with Republican state Reps. Kathleen Tomlinson, Joe Hogan, and Shelby Labs. Only two Bucks County Republicans, Kristin Marcell and Craig Staats, voted against the measure.
The consequences of inaction would ripple far beyond Philadelphia. If the Senate does not pass the funding bill, bus routes serving towns like Telford, Sellersville, Langhorne, Bensalem, and Morrisville would end by January 2026, along with 50 other routes. SEPTA’s cuts would also mean the agency could not provide enhanced service for major tourist and sporting events slated for Philadelphia in 2026, including FIFA World Cup matches, the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the PGA Championship, and NCAA March Madness games.
SEPTA’s planned fare hike—21.5% starting September 1—would add to the strain on riders already facing reduced service. And the agency’s leaders warn that these measures, far from stabilizing the system, could trigger a “death spiral” as declining ridership and revenue force even deeper cuts in the future. “We are past the point of short-term stop-gap measures. We are past the point of a few months of fixes,” Governor Josh Shapiro declared during an August 10 visit to SEPTA headquarters, as reported by NBC10. “It is time to have recurring long-term revenue for SEPTA and for the other mass transit agencies across Pennsylvania, and the time to act is now.”
Transit agencies across the state, including Pittsburgh’s, are facing similar pressures, with rising costs and lagging ridership in the wake of the pandemic. The proposed legislation represents the fifth attempt by the House to fund public transit in recent years, but it is the first to include language specifically requested by Senate leaders regarding roads and bridges. “The reason the Senate has never taken it up is because they said they wanted certain language in the bill. And this bill, my bill, House Bill 1788, takes all the language that they want and puts that in with the funding,” Dougherty said, according to WHYY.
As the Senate prepared to reconvene for its only scheduled session in August, the pressure was on. The outcome will determine not only the fate of SEPTA and its riders but also the future of public transportation across Pennsylvania. With just days left before the first wave of cuts, lawmakers face a stark choice: act now, or risk plunging one of America’s major transit systems—and the communities that depend on it—into crisis.