SEPTA's sustainability propaganda
doesn't mention how its over-reliance on buses is killing our environment or economy.
In 2008, APTA's FACT BOOK shows that rail transit needed only 20 cents subsidy per passenger-mile compared to 60 cents for bus. Philadelphia can no longer afford buses. Energy savings also support rail which gets 48 passenger-miles per gallon. Buses get only 32 passenger-miles per gallon, cars 23.
In 2009 it cost 99 cents for each passenger mile on buses, 65 cents of that pure subsidy. That is unsustainable. SEPTA's trolleys did better at a cost of 85 cents per passenger- mile, reducing their subsidy to 50 cents per passenger-mile, 23 % more sustainable than buses. SEPTA Regional Rail cost only 40 cents per passenger-mile, less than half of buses, with a subsidy of $0.15 cents per passenger- mile, 77% less than bus subsidies. Regional Rail moved more passenger-miles than buses did.
Yet SEPTA has yet to add a single inch of new rail since its takeover of the railroad in 1983, and wiped out all of the non subway-surface trolley system by 1990. SEPTA's planners aim to end Route 15 trolley service by 2015.
Because our future depends on Responsible Investment
Pennsylvania is at a crossroads in funding its transportation needs and faces the serious challenges of rising gas prices,
energy driven economic cycles, non-conformance to EPA air quality regulations and exurban sprawl. Time has shown that government
"planners" do not use public resources wisely and are driving regional planning in the wrong direction with projects the public
does not want. It is time to get back on track.
PA-TEC is the driving force for reforming state transit authorities and planning agencies to bring priorities back in line with the
public needs.
To address the monumental challenges that lie before us, transit funding must be reprioritized to projects that deliver measurable
results. Funding priorities must be focused on projects that move people efficiently, not cars. Move people, move the economy.
PA-TEC is the most aggressive advocate for reform and passenger rail service expansion in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
NJ Transit's Passenger Rail Expansion in Full Swing
While the funding of the simplest passenger rail service extension (Elwyn-Wawa) has been diverted to a $6 million dollar bus shelter and employee latrine in North Philadelphia, NJT Transit, with cooperation from Norfolk Southern is pressing forward with the reconstruction of the Lackawanna Cutoff in Central New Jersey. Twice the length and half the cost of SEPTA's gargantuan 3-mile Wawa extension, NJ Transit is a model agency who demonstrates that good projects can get done at reasonable cost.
While SEPTA's Byron Comati continues to claim that the Federal Government is only funding bus loops, transit agencies around the country confirm that SEPTA and its accomplice, DVRPC continue to funnel tax dollars away from regional rail.