There is one case in which SEPTA's riders don't mind a late arrival -- the implementation of the proposed service cuts and fare hikes.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority, one of Penn's vital links to the rest of the Philadelphia region, has granted riders' wishes again, at least temporarily.
The agency has postponed the enactment of the planned changes -- which entail a 38 percent rise in fares and a 20 percent cut in service -- until March 6.
The transit authority's proposed changes currently include an increase in one-way base fare from $2 to $2.50. At the SEPTA board's monthly meeting on February 24th, though, members may vote to increase the base fare to $3 instead. This would make Philadelphia's transit system the most expensive in the nation.
Fare increases could thin the wallets of Penn students and employees who rely on SEPTA to get them to and from work and many of the city's attractions.
College sophomore Jared Limbach said that the dramatic fair increase might make students more likely to split a taxi fare instead of taking mass transit. Either way, it becomes more expensive for students.
Public transportation is important to current students, but also to prospective ones.
Limbach, an admissions tour guide, said that parents often inquire about Philadelphia's mass transit system.
It could have been worse, however. Original plans included the elimination of weekend service, a move that would have hit college students especially hard. The plan has been revised to institute a 20 percent service cut across the board.
For those who rely on SEPTA to get them to work, the fare increases are not merely a nuisance. Many of the University's lower paid staff members already spend a significant portion of their income on transportation.
Peter Javsicas, executive director of Pennsylvanians for Transportation Solutions, said that this will really hurt the staff of Philadelphia-area business.
"We have many low-wage earners who live in the city and work in outlying areas such as King of Prussia and New Jersey," he said.
SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said that the agency is acutely aware of these concerns. He described the potential impact on the region as "devastating."
"We would lose 18 percent of our ridership," he said. "That ridership would be people whose own lives would be very severely impacted by this."
Vukan Vuchic, a professor of transportation engineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science, explained that this loss of ridership could have a significant effect on SEPTA, even if the state legislature eventually provides dedicated funding.
"Once you raise fares and discourage passengers," he said, "it's very hard to get them back."
That scenario unfolded after the 1998 transit strike -- an event from which SEPTA has struggled to recover from.
The potentially devastating plan, which is aimed at repairing SEPTA's $49 million budget deficit, has been delayed several times already.
Initially, the plans were to go into effect Jan. 23, but Governor Rendell "flexed" $13 million in unused state highway funds to push back that date.
Most recently, the changes had been scheduled to occur on Feb. 27. This date was pushed back because a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court postponed a hearing in which the city is expected to voice its arguments on its lawsuit to block the changes.
This time, though, the implementation date seems more firm. Maloney said that absolutely no stopgap funding measures remain.
State legislators must now set about finding a solution to the crisis, a task about which Maloney, Vuchic and Javsicas are all "hopeful."
If the legislature fails, March 6 will mark the date when mass transit -- as the Philadelphia area knows it -- reaches the end of the line.
Hoarding tokens
- Only 25 tokens can be purchased at one time - The policy will limit the ability of the public to speculate in transit tokens. Speculators could buy tokens at the current $1.30 price and resell them profitably -- a practice known as arbitrage -- after SEPTA hikes the fare to $3 - Instances of token hoarding, according to SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney, are more likely to involve individuals seeking to avoid paying the fare hike than for re-sale purposes
