{"id":169073,"date":"2025-08-23T11:57:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T11:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/169073\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T11:57:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T11:57:16","slug":"west-philly-residents-react-to-septas-proposed-service-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/169073\/","title":{"rendered":"West Philly residents react to SEPTA’s proposed service cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting to work<\/p>\n

For those relying on SEPTA to get to their jobs, the cuts are more than an inconvenience. They are a potential disruption to daily life.\n<\/p>\n

M. L. Mutrux, events and programming coordinator at Making Worlds Bookstore<\/a>, commutes from South to West Philadelphia for every shift. \u201cI take the 64 bus, basically from Walmart [by the Delaware river] to West Philly, here on Spruce and 48th,\u201d they said. \u201cWith work, you have to know consistently how you\u2019re going to get there.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

If the cuts take effect, one option for Mutrux is to ride a bike, \u201cwhich I don\u2019t want to do because I have ridden my bike to West. It\u2019s a 30-minute bike ride, and the city is not safe for cyclists. So I\u2019m really not looking forward to that. But I can\u2019t be an hour late to work.\u201d
\n\"M.L.One of the reasons M. L. Mutrux chose to move to Philadelphia was its public transportation system. Now they are concerned about how to commute from South to West Philly on the bus route 64, which will be reduced by 20% on August 24th. (Natalia Sanchez Loayza\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

The situation is so concerning for them that it\u2019s making them reconsider the viability of their job. \u201cI\u2019m in a transition in my work that requires more responsibilities and more time from me. So now I have to seriously consider: Do I need to buy a car in order to continue developing in my career? It\u2019s an incredible expense I don\u2019t really want to take on,\u201d Mutrux said.\n<\/p>\n

Unlike M. L., who moved to Philadelphia last year, Carol Jenkins has lived in West Philly for over 40 years. A former political science professor, Jenkins is the 27th Ward Democratic leader in Philadelphia and recalls choosing the neighborhood precisely for its transit system.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an attraction to me,\u201d she said. \u201cI walk across the street, and I get the 34 trolley. Dennis is my favorite trolley driver. He\u2019s a Phillies fan, and we talk Phillies on the trolley. When I was teaching at Temple, I would get the trolley, switch at City Hall and take the sub. I could prepare my lecture notes on the trolley.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Now, Jenkins worries about the current students at Temple who need to get to campus. \u201cI think it\u2019s appalling that our elected officials can just dismiss those difficulties. It\u2019s their responsibility. It\u2019s their obligation not to do that,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Living in Philadelphia \u2014 specifically, West Philadelphia \u2014 carried the promise of living in a connected part of the city. Many of the people WHYY News spoke with feel let down by that promise.\n<\/p>\n

Mobility affects everyone<\/p>\n

Transit cuts reach beyond the daily commute \u2014 they ripple through family life.\n<\/p>\n

Mutrux notes, \u201cI have a 4-year-old who uses the free Philly pre-K program \u2026 transit really impacts that. Sometimes my kid is coming from a 30-minute walk from his school, and it\u2019s really nice to be able to get on a bus.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Andrews also thinks about his family when he learns recent news about the service cuts. \u201cI have my father, who\u2019s aging and lives in the suburbs. It\u2019s easy for me to take the regional rail to get to him. He\u2019s blind, so he really relies on it to get into the city and out of the city to visit and do things that he needs to do,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

All of that is now under threat for Andrews and his father. \u201cThat\u2019s what the SEPTA cuts will do. They will rip families apart. I\u2019ve been ripped apart from my family. My blind father won\u2019t be able to get into the city to visit me. And me, as a person who\u2019s going blind, won\u2019t be able to get out there to visit him. We will see less of each other. It\u2019s awful. It\u2019s shameful. It\u2019s an embarrassment,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n

Public transit availability is also an accessibility issue, Mutrux emphasized. \u201cMy bus stop is right next to a senior living facility, and all of those folks are using the bus to get to parts of town that you can\u2019t get to walking. I\u2019m really concerned because I really have no idea how people are going to get where they need to go.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Residents take action<\/p>\n

West Philadelphia residents and advocates are mobilizing to prevent the cuts and channel their outrage into action.\n<\/p>\n

Stephen Bronskill, a Spruce Hill resident and coalition manager for Transit Forward Philadelphia<\/a>, a coalition of 37 organizations advocating on transportation issues in Philly, is one of them.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOver 250 people have volunteered in the last couple of months, often waking up early in the morning to stand on train platforms, urging people to step up and take action. Over 30,000 folks have written letters to their elected officials. The silver lining is seeing so many people who care about our community,\u201d he said.
\n\"StephenStephen Bronskill and Carol Jenkins live in Spruce Hills and are neighbors who rely on the T2 or 34 trolley line as their main form of transportation. This line will also be reduced by 20%. (Natalia Sanchez Loayza\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

One of the ideas from Transit Forward Philadelphia to get residents involved <\/a>was a bike sticker race. \u201cYou may have seen those red cancellation signs that say, \u2018Hey, your route is being canceled,\u2019 but there\u2019s not a lot of other information,\u201d he said. \u201cWe put a sticker on it saying, \u2018This is how you call your elected officials.\u2019 We had people race to put as many as they could in an hour. It was really fun. 50 bikers, many from West Philly, came out,\u201d Bronskill explained.\n<\/p>\n

Like Bronskill, block captain Tiziou is also hopeful that an agreement can be reached before it\u2019s too late. Tiziou emphasized the importance of persistence. \u201cThe big thing for me is for people to be in this for the long run,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope we figure this out now. But [remember] not to give up. Where we should be heading is more coverage, more frequency, more affordability.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, neighbors like Morgan seem ready to take action. \u201cI\u2019m ready to go to Harrisburg. I\u2019m ready to stand there with a white cane and dark glasses and say, \u2018You people, what are you doing? You\u2019re harming people. You\u2019re limiting people who are already so limited. It\u2019s infuriating,\u2019\u201d he said.
\n\"TransitOne way West Philly still communicates and connects is through flyers posted on poles and cork boards around the neighborhood. Transit Forward Philadelphia uses this method to share information about SEPTA cuts and how neighbors can contact their elected officials. (Natalia Sanchez Loayza\/WHYY)\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getting to work For those relying on SEPTA to get to their jobs, the cuts are more than…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":169074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,12771,15940,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-169073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-planphilly","13":"tag-septa","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115077962124737348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169073","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=169073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}