A lot is riding on SEPTA cash

Oct. 30, 2007
Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer 

Say what you will about SEPTA, the central fact of life for the region's public-transit agency is that only 43 cents of every dollar it needs to operate comes from fares.

The remaining 57 cents come from government subsidies - local, state and federal.

Those subsidies have not been fixed to any formula. Often as not, they are based on whim and on the prevailing political climate. Much like Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire, SEPTA has had to depend on the kindness of strangers.

Speaking of plays, SEPTA's annual budget process resembles a predictable melodrama, where every turn in plot is telegraphed in big, bold letters.

The agency WARNS it does not have adequate funds and THREATENS fare increases and/or budget cuts. The state legislature reacts ANGRILY, alleging WASTE AND MISMANAGEMENT. The mayor INSISTS the agency maintain its current level of service or face DIRE CONSEQUENCES.On it goes, until everyone adds a little more to the plot, the agency backs off the worst of its threats, and the curtain goes down until the same time next year.

Until this year, that is.

That's when the plot took a new and dramatic turn, with the arrival of a HERO to RESCUE the agency from its life of Blanche-like begging.

And who might this hero be?

(Hint: He likes cheese–steaks and rarely uses mass transit because he has a car that is driven - often really, really fast - by guys in Smokey-the-Bear hats.)

Yes, it is Gov. Rendell.

In Rendellian big-think fashion, the governor put together a deal to give mass-transit agencies around the state that Holy Grail of government: a predictable funding base.

It includes a share of state sales-tax revenues, and a cut of tolls from the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 80 - though the last will be a bank shot. By charging tolls on I-80, the state will free up money elsewhere to send to transit. There is - as always - a last-minute glitch because of resistance to making I-80 a toll road.

But the bottom line is likely to be: SEPTA and other mass-transit agencies around the state will get more money. And their subsidies will rise annually as state sales-tax and turnpike-toll revenues rise with inflation.

Now, the big question is:

Is SEPTA ready to rise to the challenge of not living in crisis? Is it ready to focus on items long-neglected because the annual budget drama absorbed so much of its managers' energy? Those neglected items include little things such as improving customer service and revamping service to fit new commuting patterns, which have changed dramatically since SEPTA's hub-and-spoke system was built.

Can SEPTA go from an operation that is "pretty utilitarian" (in the words of a fan) to something more? Something that attracts new riders, modernizes fare collection, and improves its fleet of buses and trains? Can it be an agency that at least lives up to the tongue-in-cheek motto one Great Expectations participant proposed: "SEPTA Service: Not an Oxymoron"?

No one is denying that SEPTA has a tough job. It isn't easy running a system that, just to take one slice of it, has 1,371 buses running 188 different routes to pick up passengers at 15,633 stops each day.

And that doesn't even include its trains, trolleys, the subway and the Market-Frankford El.

As Richard Voith, a former SEPTA board member, put it: "SEPTA has delivered a hell of a lot of service, and they do well from an efficiency point of view. They have managed to put buses on the street, but it is pretty utilitarian. It is pretty Spartan."

Now, Voith added, with a state revenue stream guaranteed: "We really have to ask SEPTA to put some cards on the table about something they can deliver."

Everyone has a favorite project or pet peeve. At Great Expectations forums, some people swore by SEPTA. Some just swore at it. Sometimes, it was the same person at two different moments.

A partial list of ideas and wishes from Great Expectations sessions:

An automated fare system (such as most world-class cities have) that allows riders to swipe or flash a card to gain entrance to buses, trains and the subway. Bonus points if the same card works on PATCO, NJTransit and bridge tolls.

Extended hours of operation on lines for the young, bar-hopping night-owls and the loyal nighttime workers who are out at 2 a.m.

An extension of the subway to the Navy Yard business center or the Northeast.

Better signs on bus stops that actually tell where the bus is going and the stops it makes. Bonus point if, as in other cities, this gets done as part of a shelter advertising deal that brings in revenue. (This is a city responsibility.)

Improved customer service. For starters, riders would like SEPTA to acknowledge the concept of customer service.

Dick Maloney, spokesman for the transit agency, said SEPTA was aware of the criticisms. "Customer service," he said, "is the topic of the hour."

He said the agency was ready to roll out a proposal for automated fare collection and to plan for the future, absent the annual funding crises.

"What this funding program does is give us the luxury for the first time in a decade to do predictable planning," he said. "Not having that is terribly debilitating."

So, the play has ended. The curtain rises on SEPTA's next act. What will it be? More tragedy, mixed with farce? Or a feel-good comeback story in a city that relishes them?