said.<\/a> \u201cTwo years is not the sustainable solution we were hoping for. We need something that\u2019s going to carry us into the future.\u201d<\/p>\nWith workers and students around the region anticipating the impacts of the drastic service cuts and fare increases, City & State asked union leaders, members and public officials if any contingency plans are in place to help residents get around the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The resounding response: There is no contingency plan for this degree of cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know that there is a way to plan around something this devastating,\u201d Philadelphia AFL-CIO President Danny Bauder told City & State. \u201cI hate to say this but, thankfully, SEPTA has a plan for how they\u2019re going to handle the lack of funding in terms of bus routes and things like that. But this is going to be awful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesse Abrams-Morley, a teacher at Kensington CAPA High School and parent of a School District of Philadelphia student, said getting around is a top concern for him and his family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been a couple of times since I\u2019ve been a teacher where we\u2019ve been on the verge of a SEPTA\u00a0strike \u2026 Inside our school, there’s not much we can do. There can be rules that are passed down to us about whether you excuse absences or whatnot \u2026You can post stuff online, you can post an assignment online \u2013 but that\u2019s not school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like so many other parents of school-age children, Abrams-Morley said that proximity to the school and his commute are major factors in how the day is planned out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not walkable (for her to go) to school anymore, and I don\u2019t want her riding a bike four miles around the city,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have a backup plan for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about the issue on Sunday, Gov. Josh Shapiro didn\u2019t provide a clear answer as to whether the state can assist in getting students to school. Referencing his previous efforts to flex highway funds to keep the system running, Shapiro said, \u201cI have (offered contingencies) in an attempt to give lawmakers more time and space to find the opportunity for common ground for a long-term solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe time for short-term fixes is over,\u201d Shapiro added. \u201cWe need a long-term solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philadelphia City Council President Kenyatta Johnson told City & State that councilmembers \u201cwarned everyone more than a year ago\u201d about the need for \u201ca steady, predictable funding source from the state, or devastating cuts to those systems were inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf SEPTA implements its 20% service reductions on August 24, the cuts will be devastating to our students going back to school, senior citizens going to and from doctor\u2019s appointments and our workforce not having transportation,\u201d Johnson said in a statement. \u201cThese SEPTA cuts will set off a chain of negative consequences for residents and businesses, the economy of the Greater Philadelphia region, and the commonwealth\u2019s future tax revenues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other labor unions have expressed similar concerns, including those that help operate or maintain SEPTA systems and others that rely on regional transit to get around.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ray Boyer, the general chairperson of Sheet Metal Air Rail and Transportation Workers Local 61, told City & State that less service could mean lost jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of newer employees that left decent jobs \u2013 good jobs \u2013 to come here,\u201d Boyer said. \u201cThey could potentially be laid off \u2026 out of work, with no money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maurice Landon, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen\u2019s first vice local chairman at SEPTA, said that on top of less work for members, the strain of more traffic and congestion will be felt throughout the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAny kind of cuts or reductions (in service) is a reduction in work \u2026 That\u2019s the angst downstairs amongst the members,\u201d Landon told City & State. \u201cWe will feel the effects of the increased traffic on the roads. It will lead to more people having to drive. We definitely have to leave earlier for work \u2013 and if any lines get cut completely, that\u2019s (one less) option there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bauder was even more forceful in describing the dramatic impacts the cuts will have on workers and residents: \u201cIt\u2019s going to ruin people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just a cataclysmic failure by elected leaders who have absolutely no intention to do anything good for anyone in this commonwealth,\u201d Bauder said. \u201cThey just really seem to be focused on culture wars and very petty forms of politics and not articulating, let alone pursuing, any sort of a vision for anything in any way at any level to be better for any Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barring any changes, teachers like Abrams-Morley said schools can expect more truancy in addition to absences and worsening performance among students struggling to get around without SEPTA.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the best of my knowledge, there is no contingency plan,\u201d Abrams-Morley told City & State. \u201cAnd to the best of my knowledge, it will be a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The budget impasse in Harrisburg means one thing for the Southeast\u2019s regional transit authority: cuts are coming.\u00a0 SEPTA,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":147350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,3232,407,606,1448,2830,1311,522,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-147349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-budget","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-labor","12":"tag-pa","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-philadelphia","15":"tag-transportation","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115031865194100296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}