As SEPTA prepares to eliminate and reduce service on several Philadelphia bus and regional rail routes due to state budget cuts, Penn community members told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the changes would have severe impacts on their commutes to school and work.
In late June, the SEPTA Board approved extensive budget cuts to mass transit services to fill a $213 million recurring budget deficit. Without new state funding, SEPTA will reduce service "by 45%" on Aug. 24 and "raise fares 21.5%" on Sept. 1 to offset this deficit — impacting many members of the Penn community.
Over 12,000 employees and hundreds of students at Penn currently utilize mass transit in their daily commutes. Penn Medicine also offers free SEPTA passes to approximately 10,000 low-income patients to help them access medical care.
A University spokesperson told the DP that Penn would communicate about the SEPTA service cuts in the coming weeks.
The DP spoke with several Penn community members who frequently use SEPTA about the personal impacts of the budget cuts.
Annie Xia, a clinical research scientist at Penn Medicine and a 2025 College graduate, noted that the bus line she uses has commuters packed in "like sardines."
“It’s really unfortunate," she said. "It’s an affordable way of transport and it's the way that people are getting to work from the city.”
Michael Bowman, a postdoctoral fellow in the Cancer Biology Department at Penn Medicine, utilizes the Paoli/Thorndale Regional Rail Line every day to reach University City and frequently takes buses to travel around Philadelphia.
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He wrote to the DP that the planned elimination of the line will leave "no way" for him to use public transportation to get to work. Instead, he will have to move or buy a car and a parking pass from Penn.
“It will be a difficult expense for me to afford right now compared to my SEPTA commuter pass," Bowman said. "If I could afford a car, I would have one, but now it is like my hand is forced to get one when I can't afford it."
Matt Kelly, who is a human resources business partner at Penn Medicine, currently uses the Media/Wawa Line. While not facing elimination, the line's frequency will be reduced.
“There’s no guarantee they're going to keep the Media line active for the foreseeable future,” Kelly told the DP.
The proposed closure of the nearby Wilmington Line in January 2026 will bring more riders onto the Media line — leading to "more crowded trains," "more cars on the road," and a worsening rush hour traffic situation, Kelly added.
Like many Philadelphia residents, Kelly hopes to keep using public transport as long as it is an option.
"As long as the trains are somewhat running, I’ll take it," he said.
Stuart Weitzman School of Design graduate student Sam Arabia currently uses the Wilmington Line to commute to Penn.
Following the service reduction this month, he wrote to the DP that he will have to schedule his "entire day around which of the few remaining trains align." Arabia wrote that he has "no idea" how he will get to Penn as an elimination of the line was proposed in January.
“I'll have to waste a lot more time waiting around for trains in stations like Penn Medicine that have no climate control," Arabia wrote. "If they scrap the line, I'll have to find a cheap car I can drive in and somehow pay for the parking fees at Penn."
Arabia mentioned the implications the budget cuts could have beyond Philadelphia, noting that residents of his home state of Delaware rely on SEPTA services to work in the city.
“Claymont is a quickly developing area with a reputation for being an affordable place for young people to settle down — they just spent millions rebuilding their SEPTA station and it could be completely abandoned in 2026," Arabia added.
Megan Wyda, a hospice liaison at Penn Med, takes the Manayunk/Norristown Line for work, which will not be affected by the initial round of budget cuts. However, she expressed worry about potential staffing shortages at the hospital due to people being unable to work because of closed lines.
“What are they going to do when the trains don’t work at all? What happens if they cut lines?” Wyda said.
Courtney Rowe, a Penn Medicine physician assistant, noted the issues with a decrease in public transport for patients.
“I worry that it is going to affect how patients are able to come to the hospital for appointments," Rowe said. "So the lack of meaningful transformation just affects continuity of care and ability to follow up, and that could really affect a lot of things."
Rowe classified the University as a "stop along the way," calling the cuts "something the city needs to address."
However, Wyda noted that Penn could make greater strides in addressing the transportation situation for its workers. She told the DP that the University knows "a lot of wealthy people" and has "a lot of wealthy benefactors.”
She also noted the difficulty of driving in a city that includes rush hour traffic, which can significantly increase commuting times.
“I just started working here about a month and a half ago, and part of the selling point was being able to take the train later, because I don’t want to drive through rush hour traffic,” Wyda said.
As part of her job, Wyda regularly needs to commute between regional Penn hospitals, Penn Medicine, and Penn Presbyterian. She recounted a past account of traveling to Penn Presbyterian as a “nightmare” and that rush hour is "a hot mess.”
If SEPTA decides to cut additional lines that she uses, Wyda said she would “have to get another job … because [she] cannot drive to work every day."
Amanda Collins, a nurse at Penn Veterinary Medicine who currently uses the Media/Wawa Line, told the DP that she has already started to notice the effects of the upcoming cuts.
“There [are] a lot of delays and it’s late, and there's just a little bit of disorganization already," Collins said. "Depending on my shift, if I were to work like a mid shift, then I would be waiting for two hours."
She also explained that the hospital structure makes it difficult to use a car as an alternate means of transportation for work.
“We had one parking lot in the front, and that’s mainly for the clients, unless you work an overnight shift, otherwise you have to pay … we don’t get any reimbursements or anything if we park in the garages," Collins said. "The only incentive is taking the trains."
Without the trains, Collins would have to pay 23 dollars a day to park in the hospital lot.
Collins plans to move to the West Chester area, which is currently served by the Paoli/Thorndale Line. Its elimination in August would force Collins to resort to driving to train lines further away or paying for parking to drive to work.
College senior Talyah Pierce uses SEPTA daily, as a Penn undergraduate and a longtime Philadelphia resident. This summer, she commuted to work using either the Market-Frankford Line or the 40 bus, which has a stop in front of Penn Medicine.
Pierce wrote to the DP that being "unable to plan around the bus schedule" when it is reduced is “frustrating,” especially if she is "late to work."
Pierce also noted her continued use of public transportation throughout the year.
“As a Penn student, I rely on public transportation to go grocery shopping, go out with friends, and commute home," Pierce wrote. "So, in those circumstances, I will probably have to rely on rideshare services like Uber or Lyft more often, which will be a bit of a financial burden."
Haotian Ma, a research specialist in the Department of Neurosurgery at Penn Medicine, utilizes various SEPTA buses to get to Penn from around the city. He emphasized that he wants to see citizens invested in addressing the situation alongside the government.
"Of course, we as workers in town would be very disappointed with the budget cuts — but probably, I think the most important thing right now is to figure out what the solution is rather than blaming and other bad things,” Ma said.
Penn recently expanded its Commuter Benefits Program, which provides a 50% discount on regional rail passes and a 5% discount on contributions to the Health Equity Commuter Card that has a maximum discount of up to $105 per month. Starting September 1st, the maximum monthly benefit will increase to $130 per month.
Penn Transportation, Parking, and Commuter Services wrote that this was due to the “challenges presented by the changes SEPTA is making in response to its unprecedented budgetary crisis” in an announcement.
Arabia noted that he “appreciated” the move, but that it could go further, citing the expensive costs of commuting from Wilmington, which is currently $8 each way.
Pierce also noted that she believes these efforts will offset some of the financial burdens of budget cuts. However, she added, “I think the decreased reliability of public transportation will still have overwhelmingly negative impacts on the function of the city.”
In an opinion article for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Penn President Larry Jameson — alongside Children's Hospital of Philadelphia President and CEO Madeline Bell and Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation Brian Roberts — wrote about the “severe disruption” in education, research, and healthcare services for Penn and the city that the cuts would cause.
“Transit is not just a Philadelphia issue — it is a statewide priority that supports workforce participation, economic growth, and equitable access to opportunity,” the authors wrote.
They called for the state governor and General Assembly to increase investment in public transit, noting that the planned cuts to SEPTA would “shock” Pennsylvania’s economy and lead to “jeopardizing jobs, mobility, and public safety.”
During the University Board of Trustees’s annual Spring Full Board Meeting, Vice President for Community Affairs Jeffery Cooper noted that Penn had joined forces with CHOP, Comcast, and “800 players in the city” to help lobby the state and city to appropriate funding needed to maintain SEPTA.
“Our students need to get here," Cooper said. "Our patients need to be able to access our hospital."
