PA: Lower Merion Commissioners adopt resolution addressing proposed SEPTA cuts

During a special board meeting this week, the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution addressing proposed SEPTA cuts.

Last month, SEPTA officials announced they need to cut service by 45 percent and increase fares by more than 20 percent due to a lack of state funding.

According to information released by SEPTA in April, the transit agency faces a $213 million budget deficit beginning July 1.

"While SEPTA is already one of the most efficient transit agencies in the country, additional austerity measures, such as a hiring freeze and administrative cuts, have reduced the size of this deficit from $240 million to $213 million," SEPTA officials said in a press release.

According to information from SEPTA regarding the proposed future of the Paoli/ Thorndale Line beginning in August, weekday services will be reduced to 30-minute peak and 60-minute off-peak service on the Paoli/ Thorndale Line. Weekend service will be reduced to every two hours.

Then, all service would be eliminated on the Paoli/ Thorndale Line in January.

On the Cynwyd line, weekday service will be reduced by up to 50 percent beginning in August, with all service being eliminated in January.

During the Lower Merion special board meeting this week, Todd Sinai, president of the board of commissioners, addressed the township's resolution supporting SEPTA.

"It is hard to imagine the Main Line without the Main Line," Sinai said. "This is a township that grew up around a series of train stations that are proposed to no longer be that."

According to Lower Merion's resolution, the SEPTA cuts include the elimination of five Regional Rail Lines, 50 bus lines, and a 9 p.m. curfew on the remaining services.

"[T]hese service cuts, and especially those to the Paoli/Thorndale and Cynwyd train lines and the 44, 52, 103, and 106 bus lines, will have a devastating effect on the historic 'Main Line' community of Lower Merion Township," according to the resolution.

Lower Merion officials say the eight train stops and four bus lines picked for elimination are vital for local businesses, commercial areas, and the township's six hospitals, universities, and colleges.

"Lower Merion in turn depends on the health and vitality of the broader southeastern Pennsylvania region, which also would be devastated by the proposed service reductions, with serious and long-lasting effects on SEPTA's 400,000 daily riders and the communities served in the region, a significant increase in vehicles on area roadways causing unbearable traffic conditions and excessive air pollution, and many fewer jobs in the region with enormous negative economic impact for the Commonwealth and local governments," according to the resolution.

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