The Office of the Governor of the State of Pennsylvania
09/08/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/08/2025 06:55
Shapiro Admin Approves SEPTA $394 Million Capital Funding Maintain Mass Transit | Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Harrisburg, PA - Today, Governor Josh Shapiro directed Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Secretary Mike Carroll to approve the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's (SEPTA) request to use up to $394 million in capital assistance funds for daily operations. On Friday, SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer sent a letter to PennDOT requesting this flexibility, and with the Shapiro Administration's approval, SEPTA will be able to preserve existing service and avoid planned service cuts for the next two years.
Click here to read Secretary Carroll's response to SEPTA approving their request.
Governor Shapiro and his Administration have already taken several measures to support SEPTA and strengthen mass transit across the Commonwealth. For two years in a row, the Governor has proposed the first major increase in state transit funding in more than a decade, including $292 million in new funding in his 2025-26 proposed budget that would grow to $1.5 billion over five years. He also secured $80 million in additional funding for mass transit in the 2024-25 bipartisan budget and, last November, flexed $153 million in federal highway funds to prevent SEPTA from making immediate service cuts and enacting a 21 percent fare increase.
However, as Secretary Carroll notes in his letter, the Pennsylvania Senate has been unable to pass a transit funding bill that can reach the Governor's desk:
"Unfortunately, Senate Republicans have refused to agree to a long-term solution that provides certainty and does not also unfairly raid mass transit capital dollars for unrelated expenditures - and the Shapiro Administration believes Pennsylvanians who rely on SEPTA deserve service that helps them get to work, school, or wherever they need to go."In the letter, Secretary Carroll explains why the Senate-passed legislation fails to meet the needs of SEPTA and other mass transit agencies:
"First, it would have provided a fraction of the funding that the Governor proposed as part of his proposal to provide new funding for system operations. Second, it would have required these systems to utilize their capital funding over two fiscal years to fill the gap without a revenue source to replace the lost funding they are already relying on for capital projects. Third, it would have taken funding away from capital projects already underway, thereby compromising the safety and efficiency of the transit system. Fourth, this Senate-passed bill would have only provided a temporary fix, at a time when systems are seeking assurance that the Commonwealth can provide long term sustainability to their operations. Fifth and most concerningly, this bill would have taken existing resources out of the PTTF, in the amount of $419 million, and sent them to the Motor License Fund for road paving projects. While PennDOT and the Shapiro Administration support funding for road repair projects and have allocated significant resources to that work, we do not believe utilizing mass transit funding for such purposes is sound public policy."Instead, SEPTA requested to use up to $394,000,000 of their current FY2025-26 capital assistance allocation that has yet to be obligated - not previously committed funding. As a result, this request will not redirect PTTF dollars that are committed as was contemplated in the Senate-passed legislation.
This action ensures SEPTA will continue to provide critical transportation services ahead of and during high-profile events in 2026, including America's 250th anniversary, the FIFA World Cup, and the MLB All-Star Game. Additionally, SEPTA will be able to continue to meet the needs of nearly 800,000 Pennsylvanians every day - including 52,000 students in the School District of Philadelphia and hundreds of thousands of workers who take SEPTA every day.
Reliable public transit is critical to the regional economy. Economic analysis has shown that if SEPTA were to have gone forward with the planned service cuts, it could cost the region $6 billion in long-term earnings and eliminate 76,000 jobs. Furthermore, without this intervention, SEPTA's planned service cuts would have made it more difficult for students and teachers to get to school. The School District of Philadelphia reported that last week, 63 percent of schools saw increased late arrivals, and over half saw higher absenteeism due to transportation issues.
As a condition of its approval of SEPTA's request, the Shapiro Administration instructed SEPTA to continue to address its structural challenges and report to PennDOT every 120 days the steps taken and progress made to increase efficiencies within the system.
Governor Shapiro and the Shapiro Administration will continue advocating for a long-term, recurring, funding solution to ensure the Commonwealth's transportation services can provide reliable service for Pennsylvanians to get where they need to go in a safe and efficient manner.
Read the full letter from Secretary Carroll here.
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The Office of the Governor of the State of Pennsylvania published this content on September 08, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on September 08, 2025 at 12:56 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]