Submitted by MrATLien t3_10li939 in philadelphia
I hate to be pessimistic, but given the massive budget shortfalls of the vast majority of American transit agencies (less people taking it, maybe a little safety concern but especially due to remote work), the future has never looked more bleak for them. At least not in my lifetime.
SEPTA is an agency that has historically gotten a big portion of its operating budget from fares. Not a majority, but ~30% or so. It's increasingly clear that we'll never see that number get to where it was pre-pandemic, not even close.
Unless there are big changes at the state level and Harrisburg somehow gets generous out of nowhere, expect funding cuts (especially for bus service). Have you ever been to a west coast, less dense city where buses come once every 30 minutes? and service is even worse on the weekends? That could be what we're looking at here. The kind of thing where bus transit especially is more of a helping hand for those with less fortunate circumstances as a "last ditch" option.
There's a good chance that in 3 years or so, any transit agency that doesn't get a permanent funding source from its state will look back at 2023 even as "the good old days". Given that even a state like CA is mulling billions of dollars worth of transit cuts, I'm not optimistic for PA at all.
Just looking at the odds, the future of PA will probably be very very driving oriented. Interesting things are happening on that front though, hundreds of millions are going into freeway expansions in Philly and beyond. So it's not all doom and gloom, there are definitely interesting new projects (just think highway, not transit).