Students and families brace for service cuts
The first day of cuts comes just one day before thousands of Philadelphia public school students and teachers — many of whom rely on SEPTA — are set to return to the classroom Aug. 25.
Autumn Fingerhood, a single mother from Northeast Philly who juggles multiple jobs, is worried about how the cuts could affect her 10th-grade daughter’s ride to school. The bus route she relies on is one of the dozens set to be cut unless funding comes through.
She criticized Republicans, including state Sen. Joe Picozzi, R-Philadelphia, for not doing enough to secure funding for the ailing transit system that serviced an average of 708,000 customers daily in June.
“I cannot be late for work or leave work, which lately seems to be what the Republicans have been doing,” she said. “Who is going to drop my daughter off and pick her up? Am I supposed to quit my jobs?”
Autumn Fingerhood, a hospitality worker representing Unite Here Local 274, criticized Pennsylvania Senate Republicans during a press conference Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025, at SEPTA headquarters. She said the cuts could impact how her daughter gets to school and people going to events and working in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. (Cory Sharber/WHYY)
Picozzi and other Philly-area Republicans introduced a measure last month for additional state oversight for SEPTA, but the bill stopped short of providing any funding.
Fingerhood, who works at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex and is with the Unite Here Local 274 union, brought up the impacts cuts could have on the upcoming FIFA World Cup matches and the 2026 MLB All-Star Game, as the Sports Express special service on the Broad Street Line is set to be cut.
“Without special services to the Sports Complex, how do you expect people to get to these events? How do you expect my coworkers to get to work who make these events possible? I’ve been asking and will continue to ask, who do these cuts serve? I know it’s not the workers, I know it’s not the taxpayers, and I know it’s not my daughter,” Fingerhood said.