Idea to privatize SEPTA floats around the State House amid funding crisis

Privatizing SEPTA? Here's what we know about the cost-saving idea

SEPTA has gotten a cost-savings idea to place its bus service in private hands. Here's what we know.

PHILADELPHIA - Facing a budget crunch and a money battle in Harrisburg, SEPTA has gotten what a leading Republican member of the state house believes is a cost-savings idea. 

Place its bus service in private hands.

What we know:

SEPTA says its bus services are the biggest part of its operation, providing 400-thousand trips per day on 125 bus routes in the region. 

Bus ridership has come busting back after the slowdown from the pandemic. 

All good news. 

What they're saying:

Now, a Republican leader in the state house thinks he has a way to make it cheaper.

"Privatizing the bus lines, trying to join into a public/private partnership with an organization so we can continue into the future without having a crisis when it comes to financing," said Pa. Representative Jesse Topper, a Republican from Bedford and Fulton Counties.

Topper is looking for co-sponsors on a bill he may offer in a few weeks mandating SEPTA pair with a private operator to run its sprawling bus lines. 

He cites Denver as a city which has successfully done it. 

SEPTA isn’t so sure.

"We think that SEPTA is the best option for providing bus service in the city and the region. To provide the service on the scale and intensity we do it would require a great deal for somebody else to come in and be to operate that," Andrew Busch, SEPTA spokesperson. 

The idea of privatizing emerges as SEPTA faces a funding crisis. 

It argues without the $165 million Governor Shapiro has targeted for the authority in his budget it will be forced to impose a punishing 45 percent service cutback including dropping 50 bus and five Regional Rail lines.

Topper says 165 million won’t fly. He said, "that kind of money devoted to simply one aspect of transportation. I don’t believe that is achievable. Particularly with our budgets coming down the pike over the next couple of years."

SEPTA says its slashed costs--clawing back 30 million in savings--and its 165 million in state dollars is worth every last cent. 

Andrew Busch said, "we think those funds are an investment that more than pays for itself in the money this region sends to Harrisburg."