Would SEPTA really shut down the system?

There is saber-rattling. And then there is what SEPTA is doing.
The czars at the transit agency who are locked in a death struggle with Harrisburg over money for mass transit yesterday ratcheted up the ante just a bit. How does this sound to you? If they don’t get the funding they say they need, SEPTA says it will shut down nine of its 13 rail lines – including the Media-Elwyn line here in Delaware County. You can get all the details in our transit reporter Jeff Wolfe’s story today. That line happens to run right beside our office here in beautiful downtown Primos. We kind of take that one personally. SEPTA says it is not saber-rattling. Sure. I’m not buying. Regardless what you may think of it, and despite some folks in the middle of the state seem completely averse to giving mass transit in the Philadelphia region another dime, expect this thing to get solved. The money for transportation got caught in the usual politics that accompany the budget last summer in the state Capitol. It got used as a bargaining chip in the battle over liquor privatization. In the end nothing got done. Transit funding will be back at the top of the agenda come the fall session next week. And round and round we go. But I wouldn’t start planning my alternate means of commuting into the city. At least not yet.

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