(The following appeared on the Bucks County Courier Times website on March 28.)
PHILADELPHIA — For the first time in a decade, the Philadelphia area’s mass transit agency is not facing funding problems.
SEPTA officials unveiled a $1.08 billion operating budget proposal Wednesday for next fiscal year, and it calls for service increases rather than cuts.
General Manager Joseph Casey credited steady state funding and an increase in ridership, which was up 16 percent, mostly on regional rail lines, during the first seven months of the current fiscal year.
Casey said more people are turning to public transit because of increased gasoline costs.
He expects revenue to be up $10 million to $15 million by the end of the current fiscal year.
SEPTA is adding service and putting more cars on trains. It also will work on improving customer communications and cleaning stations and vehicles.
SEPTA riders in Bucks and eastern Montgomery County had a few ideas Thursday as to how the money should be spent.
Michael Ruk, a 34-year-old Episcopal priest from Falls, said the revenue should go to more frequent trains, later-running trains and moderate fares on the regional rail lines.
Ruk was standing at the Levittown/Tullytown station along the R7 regional rail line. The station, which he called a “dump” and “frumpy,” would be his next priority for the extra funds. Ruk said the stops on the R7 line are pitiful compared to the ones he’s seen along the Main Line. He said he remembers when officials announced they would give the station in Tullytown a makeover, although he hasn’t seen a change since then.
Standing next to Ruk was John Boccanfuso, a 20-year-old college student.
“The thing I always notice is how ugly everything is,” he said. “I’d like to see working ticket machines at all the stops,” he said, noting that the ticket station in Levittown already was closed by 3 p.m.
Boccanfuso added that when he takes the area’s regional rail lines to New York, he notices a very palpable discrepancy in upkeep between the New Jersey Transit trains and those operated by SEPTA.
“It’s much nicer in New Jersey,” he said.
Bob Collins, 56, from Bristol Township and an Amtrak employee, offered a laundry list of changes he’d like to see.
“They need better lighting. They need a better [public announcement] system. The stations definitely need [SEPTA] police patrols,” he said. He added that he’d like to see more security cameras.
On SEPTA’s R2 regional rail line, Ken Gimmill of Hatboro said he’d like more comfortable seats.
Traveling with him was Wayne Birch, also of Hatboro.
“The only major problem is parking here,” he said. “We couldn’t find a space when we came at 9.”
Heading into town was SEPTA conductor Kevin Allen.
“We need better equipment. Some of it is older than me,” he said. Allen’s been with the transit agency for five years, living in Hatboro for the last three.
Allen said the opening of the Comcast building in Philadelphia has a lot more people going into town.
“Some of the equipment’s in good shape, some is just old,” he said, adding that the biggest complaint he hears is about the fares. But he pointed out that a person can go from Trenton to Thorndale, west of Philadelphia, for $10.
Communication was an area Jessica Felix said could be improved.
“Sometimes when I’m going to work, we have to get off at another station and they don’t explain why we have to get off there,” she said.