The cuts are part of SEPTA's doomsday budget that passed at the end of June as the agency faces a $213 million deficit.
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Unless state lawmakers find funding for public transportation in the budget for the next fiscal year, the first wave of changes will happen on August 24, when 20% of SEPTA services will be cut.
"It's going to affect everyone who has to get to these schools, whether they're using SEPTA or trying to drive and there's more congestion on the roads. There's going to be an impact of this that ripples out to all modes of travel," SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch told Action News. "When we're doing a 20% cut across the board, even when the route is running, there's going to be much less service on it."
Busch said these cuts will impact the 55,000 Philadelphia students who use SEPTA passes to get to and from school.
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The School District of Philadelphia says more than 198,000 students attended Philadelphia schools last year, meaning about a quarter of students relied on SEPTA service.
A school district spokesperson tells Action News school leadership is meeting with SEPTA officials next week to discuss the potential service cuts and make plans in case state lawmakers don't include SEPTA funding in the budget.
Meanwhile, SEPTA is urging parents and students to plan for the worst.
"We have a 12-year-old who goes to school in West Philly, and she is going to have a very hard time getting there," said Steph Davis, of South Philadelphia. "She takes the Route 10 trolley, which I'm told is going to turn into a bus. It's hard enough to catch when it's a trolley."
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SEPTA warns that the potential cuts could lead to longer commutes, more crowded conditions, and less reliability, especially in the Northeast and the Northwest parts of the city.
Andrew Saltz, a school teacher who lives in South Philadelphia, said, "Everything for everybody is going to get a little worse."
With so many of his students relying on public transportation, Saltz said he fears this could lead to them either showing up late or not showing up at all.
"On top of what they've been through with COVID-19, on top of what they've been through just living in the city with the violence, now it's like, 'Yeah, you don't have a bus anymore.' Like what are we telling them?" Saltz questioned.
Busch said SEPTA isn't only in discussions with the School District of Philadelphia, but the agency is also speaking with local universities about the potential impacts of these cuts.
Temple University leaders sent a statement to the school community last week, asking people to explore alternative transportation options.
"Based on the 2022 Transportation Survey, approximately 12,000 students, faculty and staff commute to and from campus by SEPTA bus, Regional Rail or Metro lines... These cuts, along with the curfew, would drastically impact the Broad Street Line, Regional Rail and buses for our students, faculty and staff. Our expectation is these cuts would result in an additional 2,000 people driving to campus each day, further limiting parking on and around campus," the statement said.