PA: With a resolution, Lower Merion's commissioners urge state lawmakers to fund SEPTA, calling proposed cuts 'draconian'

At a special meeting on Wednesday night, the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners passed a resolution calling on Pennsylvania's elected officials to avoid the "devastating" cuts to SEPTA that could go into effect if lawmakers do not reach a bipartisan funding plan.

In efforts to close an annual budget gap of $213 million, SEPTA's operating budget for the 2026 fiscal year proposes the elimination of 55 bus routes, five Regional Rail lines and the closure of 66 stations. It also includes a 21.5% fare increase, putting prices on par with New York City's public transit system.

In Lower Merion, a town forged by the Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the cuts to SEPTA would mean the elimination of the Paoli/ Thorndale Line, the Regional Rail line that runs through the heart of the township. Four bus lines that run through Lower Merion — the 44, 52, 103 and 106 — would also be cut.

The resolution calls the proposed service cuts "draconian."

"It's hard to imagine the Main Line without the Main Line," Todd Sinai, president of the board of commissioners, said at Wednesday's meeting. "This is a township that grew up around a series of train stations that are proposed to no longer be."

The resolution underscore's SEPTA's wide reach, and need, in Lower Merion. Businesses and corporate headquarters depend on public transit for employees, it states. Students, staff, faculty and patients use SEPTA to commute to the six hospitals, universities and colleges based in Lower Merion. Commercial areas depend on train and bus passengers for shopping and dining.

It warns of "unbearable traffic conditions and excessive air pollution" if transit access is cut and thousands of people are forced to drive to work and school every day. It also mentions potential harm to the "health and vitality of the broader Southeastern Pennsylvania region."

With the resolution, Lower Merion's commissioners are petitioning Pennsylvania's elected officials "for a bipartisan commitment to a reliable, sufficient public funding solution for mass transportation in Pennsylvania that would avoid the devastating proposed cuts to SEPTA service."

Sinai said the township is "working on this matter more than just reading a resolution" and noted that the conversation around avoiding cuts to SEPTA is "the wrong conversation."

The conversation, rather, should be "How do we invest in more SEPTA? How do we invest more in public transit?" he said.

© 2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Visit www.inquirer.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.