(The following story by Dan Hirschhorn appeared on The Evening Bulletin website on August 23.)
PHILADELPHIA — The Commonwealth Court here will likely hear legal arguments during the week of Oct. 29 in SEPTA’s appeal of a recent Common Pleas Court decision barring it from eliminating paper transfers.
Common Pleas Court Judge Gary F. DiVito ruled against SEPTA last Thursday in its legal battle with the city over the transfers, calling the SEPTA board’s plan to eliminate the transfers “a manifest and flagrant abuse of discretion.”
SEPTA immediately appealed the ruling, but continues to provide the transfers – which allow riders to switch to connecting routes for 60 cents – in the interim in compliance with the court order.
The city has said the elimination of transfers will disproportionately affect low-income and minority riders, making the plan discriminatory and illegal. SEPTA maintains that it has discretion to scrap the transfers, which it calls costly and outdated.