Philly’s biggest business chamber now lobbying to restore SEPTA’s funding

As for the next SEPTA executive, Cameron said the chamber recognizes that “it’s a lot of work for whoever is in the job, to be able to navigate us through getting the funding that we need and to be able to expand the system.”

And that the chamber is “on standby ready to work with them.”

Cameron said she regularly rides the SEPTA system, mostly the bus as a commuter into Center City.

The transit system faces a $240 million budget shortfall after COVID-19 funding dried up. State leaders chipped in some as a temporary measure but it’s not enough to plug the gap.

There’s a plethora of businesses located just outside Philadelphia city limits but well within the SEPTA transportation network, which reaches deeply into the suburbs.

Commuter patterns show that often lower income tax bracket workers in the city and the nearby suburban communities will take public transit, as will college students, university or hospital employees, older adults and people with disabilities. Then occasionally, especially when on vacation, so will international and regional travelers.

SEPTA’s new fare hikes will make some riders on the outer rings of its service area pay more but some riders say they want inner city residents to pay their fair share.

All those groups have different needs from SEPTA, with different on-demand schedules, and reliability is the key factor for their decision to ride or not.

For business travelers, it’s not only reliability and access, but safety for themselves and their employees is paramount.

While many business professionals prefer to drive because of tight schedules packed with meetings and other responsibilities – others prioritize supporting SEPTA and it works for them.

“I’m a SEPTA power user. My son loves trains so sometimes we catch them just for fun,” said

Kenyatta James, deputy executive director at the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia. “But I take the train or the bus to work most days or when I take my son to school.”

While there’s fewer daily white collar job commuters from the suburbs into Center City than five years ago – the demand for rapid and reliable transportation is still expected – especially for business travelers who use the service as a preferred route between Washington and New York City, with pit stops and transfers in Philadelphia and New Jersey.

“I take the subway mostly because I live close to it. So it’s always easy and convenient and the temperature is going to be a little bit more under control. On the train platform, it’s about the same temperature all the time and it is still generally faster [than sitting in traffic],” James said.

He supports the renewed advocacy for more public sector SEPTA investment. There’s so much opportunity, like the plans on the Broad Street Subway reconnection along Lehigh Avenue where Amtrak and SEPTA’s regional rail have plans to refurbish the North Philadelphia station, he said.

“On the East Coast we have a lot of transit infrastructure that if rehabbed or supported properly could be put back into use and allow for a drastic increase in commuter traffic, increasing people’s ability to get around without driving,” he said. “But a lot of these decisions are not made by people that need the trains. Statewide politics can make the situation a lot more difficult than it needs to be.”