Breaking: Mayor Street is awake!

Sorry for those of you outside of the Philadelphia area, but it appears that this city’s mayor, John Street, is alive and cares about something other than his iPhone. I just got the below press release, and as a daily SEPTA rider/sufferer, I actually agree that something needs to be done to remedy this stupid decision that SEPTA made. Rather than raise the fair across the board, they are without question penalizing the poorest riders.

City of Philadelphia Files Injunction to Prevent SEPTA from Eliminating Transfers

Philadelphia, PA – The City of Philadelphia has requested an injunction from the Court of Common Pleas to prevent SEPTA from eliminating transfers on August 1, 2007. The City has repeatedly asked the SEPTA Board to halt its plans to eliminate transfers. Mayor John F. Street specifically asked SEPTA to reconsider on July 26, which SEPTA refused to do. Unless the Court grants an injunction, on August 1 SEPTA will require riders who use transfers to pay a full fare every time they get on a bus, trolley or subway.

For some riders the elimination of the transfer will mean a $6 cash fare instead of $3.20 for a one-way trip. For riders using tokens, it will mean $5.20 for a round trip on the bus and subway instead of $3.80 today. The City has consistently supported a fare increase that places equal burdens on all riders and does not single out low to moderate income riders for unfair treatment. The City believes that as many as 45,000 adult riders each day will be impacted by the transfer elimination.

The impact is even more disproportional on students, their parents and the school district. For the 32,000 school children who use SEPTA to get to school, this could mean a fare increase of to up $4.00 per day. The rate of the increases could be 100 percent to 200 percent. The School District and SEPTA have not reached an agreement and the SEPTA board will not meet until September 27, 2007. Some kids will be starting school in three weeks.

SEPTA has not provided any credible evidence of the savings and additional revenue from transfer elimination and has failed to adequately describe the financial impact on transfer users.

Of course, I’m sure there’s some weird political stuff going on here. Mayor Street hasn’t taken a stand this bold in some time, so you know the SEPTA stuff must be hitting him where he lives.

liz | 5:01 PM | Uncategorized