Philadelphia, PA – Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) has officially began cutting service in mass today, the first round of cuts mostly affect City bus service, while tomorrow will begin the suburban cuts. Regional Rail service will begin being cut September 2nd. On top of this, Regional Rail service has been severely affected by vehicle shortages.
Here’s a breakdown of the cuts that are taking place within the next month
Effective August 24th/25th, 2025
Route eliminations: 1, 8, 12, 19, 30, 31, 35, 47M, 50, 62, 73, 78, 80, 88, 89, 91, 106, 120, 126, 133, 150, 201, 206, 311, 452, 461, 462, 476, 478, 484, Boulevard Direct, and MANN Loop
Routes being modified
2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 17, 25, 38, 43, 44, 53, 61, 63, 64, 98, 99, 105, 115, 125, and 310 (see here for more details)
Effective September 27th:
Route eliminations: 204
All remaining bus, Metro, and Regional Rail lines will see a 20% reduction in service.
On top of this, the General Electric built Silverliner IV cars from 1974 have been having multiple issues, to the point where additional cuts have to be made to keep the service running.
After the multiple fires that occurred earlier this year involving the Silverliner IV units, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) required many cars to be pulled from service that had issues, which leaves SEPTA with a massive car shortage. This caused many trips to be cut or eliminated without warning. Considering that these are some of the only cars being 50+ years old in revenue service in the country, it’s clear that SEPTA also needs money to replace these cars.
If SEPTA doesn’t receive proper funding, a new round of cuts will begin in January 2026, which would be even worse than this round. A devastating blow to not only SEPTA, and the Philadelphia metropolitan area, but even the state of Pennsylvania as a whole, as many other transit agencies have to endure similar cuts for the same reason.
For more specific details on the cuts, it’s best to check out SEPTA’s website as they have a funding crisis article, breaking down what is to be done, as well as an article detailing what happened with the Regional Rail trains.
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