While the Pennsylvania House of Representatives has approved mass transit funding, the Senate is still a hold out. BLET’s Maurice Landon, far right, spoke at an August 6 rally in Philadelphia to urge the Senate to act. Pictured here, from left: Thomas Cleveland, BLET Div. 71 member; Anthony Davido, BLET Div. 71 President; Raymond Boyer, SMART-TD; and Brother Landon, BLET Div. 71.
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The Pennsylvania state senate has failed to act on an urgent need for public transit funding. Unless the senate passes legislation to plug a budget hole due to a drop in federal funding combined with a loss of dollars from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority now being redirected, substantial budget cuts will hit Commonwealth’s 53 transit agencies this month. Faced with a $213 million deficit, SEPTA, the state’s largest transit agency, plans to cut 45% of its routes between now and January, including regional rail where BLET members operate the locomotives in Philadelphia, its surrounding suburbs and into Delaware and New Jersey.
“Investing in SEPTA is not just about preserving a transit system. It is about safeguarding Pennsylvania’s economic future,” said Maurice Landon, the BLET’s First Vice Local Chairman at SEPTA and an 18-year locomotive engineer for the transit authority. Landon spoke out against the proposed cuts at a rally outside Philadelphia City Hall on August 6.
“These cuts would hurt not just the more than 200 BLET locomotive engineers who make SEPTA run but also the millions of Philadelphians who rely on us to get to work, go to appointments, and visit loved ones,” Landon told attendees at the rally. SEPTA is widely used by Philadelphia residents including students in college and the lower grades to get to and from school. The elderly and the disabled are especially dependent on the service, as well as commuters from distant suburbs.
The cuts scheduled for regional rail would eliminate five rail lines and no trains would run later than 9 p.m. SEPTA uses some of Amtrak’s rails and pays the passenger service $64 million each year for access. Eliminating a significant portion of SEPTA’s regional rail service would also hurt Amtrak’s bottom line.
To learn more about the SEPTA funding crisis watch this story from the Fox television affiliate in Philadelphia or this story from CBS News Philadelphia.
Photos of the rally can be found here. Watch a video of Brother Landon’s speech here.