The Transit for All PA Funding Package Can Help Keep Pennsylvania Moving
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EDITORIAL UPDATE, 6-11-25: a previous version of this blog noted public transportation helped people across PA make half a million trips per year and has been corrected to reflect the correct number which is a quarter billion.
From big cities to rural areas, we all deserve more choices in getting around. Pennsylvania is no exception. Public transit is used in every single county, whether it’s the dial-a-ride service and ten bus routes in Schuylkill County or rabbittransit around Harrisburg, York, and Gettysburg which provides over 3 million rides a year. These services help us all, whether you or your loved ones are one of the 30% of Pennsylvanians without a driver’s license, one of the over 56% of households in Pennsylvania with unaffordable housing and transportation costs, or just plainly want more ways to get to a doctor’s appointment or see friends and family.
On the other hand, transit has been weathering decades of disinvestment in transportation policy, while fossil fuel, automotive, and road-building interests profit off a restrictive status quo where driving is the only option. The pandemic deepened this disinvestment, and despite people increasingly choosing transit and steadily expanding service, transit agencies face new fiscal cliffs that have the potential to undermine their hard-earned recovery.
But we can’t take this situation lying down. Transit advocates in states across the country have been fighting to keep people moving. A current budget fight in Pennsylvania is an illustrative example – and there, the Transit for All PA funding package (House, Senate) could help be the long-term solution the state needs.
Public transit is critical to the state’s economy, contributing over $5.4 billion a year, over $36 billion in housing values, and helping people across the state make over quarter billion trips every year. Pennsylvania is home to over 130 bus and rail manufacturers, and transit leads to nearly 39,000 jobs in the state, more than the number of people employed in all Heavy and Civil Engineering industries in 2024, including Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In addition to driving the economy, transit is a pillar of healthy communities. Transit has been shown to reduce social isolation, especially for older adults or in rural areas. Transit can be crucial for access to health care—a study in 2023 showed that 21 percent of US adults without access to a vehicle or transit missed or skipped necessary healthcare services. Those with access to transit services were more than 50% less likely to skip needed care.
Despite transit’s importance, Pennsylvania’s transit agencies have yet to fully recover from the pandemic, running around 12% less service in 2024 than it did in 2019. The state’s largest agencies, the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) in Pittsburgh have not been able to increase service beyond 90% of 2019 levels. Many small agencies such as in Erie or State College experienced even deeper cuts. And even the agencies that have done the best now face new obstacles with a cliff in federal pandemic relief funding that could jeopardize their hard-earned recovery.
The urgency is back on now. SEPTA announced that unless the state comes up with a longer-term solution, the agency would have to cut service by 45% and increase fares by 21.5%. PRT similarly announced a 35% cut in service and a 62% reduction in paratransit service area. The Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority (LANTA), serving the Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton region, has made a strong transit recovery but now its fiscal cliff could lead to a 20% service cut and 25%+ fare increases.
Using data from the National Transit Database and budgetary assumptions for growth in expenses and revenues, we find that the state would need $485 million more in state funding in FY2025-26 compared to a baseline without any additional investments. The next year, this amount grows to $527 million. This amount would allow agencies to get back to 2019 levels of service and increase service by 10% outside of SEPTA and PRT. As a comparison, the state spent roughly $760 million a year in solely federal funds on highway capacity expansion in the first two and a half years of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law starting late 2021.
Meanwhile, the recently introduced Transit for All PA funding package (House, Senate) promises to meet this challenge, projected to generate over $694 million in the FY2025-26, which could increase transit service by +24% beyond 2019 levels, which would come with all the resulting economic, health, and affordability benefits. This could take us beyond the country’s meager status quo, where over half of the population does not live near any transit. The package contains three mechanisms developed in community that are politically viable, quick to implement, related to transportation, and that do not disproportionately impact marginalized, low-income, or disabled populations:
- Raising the state’s rental car fee from $2 to $6.50.
- Increasing the car lease fee from 3% to 5%.
- Establishing a 6% excise tax on ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft.
These would be added in addition to Governor Shapiro’s proposed $292 million increase in transit funding from existing sales tax revenues (i.e. from the General Fund), which alone would only meet 60% of the needed amount in FY2025-26. This alone would be insufficient given the state’s transit needs. Taken together with the Transit for All PA, the state can truly make an impact on mobility for all Pennsylvanians. Time is ticking for the state budget… will legislators meet the moment? They need to hear from you.
The choice is clear—it is time to invest in economic vitality in communities across the state, public health, and affordable transportation options for people to get where they need to go.
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