A healthy investment

It looks as if regional rail might not be jumping the tracks after all. State legislators in Harrisburg are proposing stop-gap funding to prevent the 25 percent raise in fares and 20 percent cut in service -- including all weekend service -- that SEPTA officials claimed earlier this month would be necessary to close a $62 million gap in the transit agency's budget. While obviously good news, this last-minute resuscitation is not exactly a cause for outright celebration. A weary sigh of relief, perhaps -- but we'll need much more from the state before we can feel comfortable with the state of public transit in the Delaware Valley.

To save transit, we need to do more than pull out the defibrillators at the beginning of each fiscal year. Restoring SEPTA to health requires a dedicated source of state funding that allows the agency to both maintain the services currently provided and make investment in ridership growth a priority. Increasing ridership is critical to turning around a decline that, for the first time this fall, actually brought us to the doorstep of catastrophe: the prospect of a region with one of the best transportation infrastructures in the nation gutting rail service to the point that few would, or could, choose to utilize it.

Chestnut Hill's own R-8 regional rail line, on the chopping block for a time during last year's installment of the budget debacle, provides a very good example of what could be achieved by targeted investment. SEPTA would eliminate weekend service on a line that is a popular option for weekend excursions to the Parkway museums and University City; why not instead add a stop at the Philadelphia Zoo, which, as every rider knows, the line skirts on its way to 30th Street Station? Create a marketing campaign pointing out that off-peak round-trip fares would be cheaper than the zoo's parking fee and watch weekend ridership take off like the zoo balloon.

Sound too expensive? How about simply adjusting the R-8's schedule to allow for a convenient connection with the R-7 Trenton line at North Philadelphia for New York-bound riders? For those who like to dream really big, there's the idea of extending the Fox Chase portion of the line up to Newtown in Bucks County -- one of the fastest-growing areas in the region -- on already existing track, a plan that was in the works 20 years ago.

This is just the R-8 we're talking about. Imagine what could be implemented with dedicated funds and a smart, long-term growth plan for the entire system.

Such talk may sound far-fetched given the current state of things, but the newly-formed Philadelphia Transit Campaign (www.phillytransit.org), which includes the Northwest Campaign for Public Transportation under its umbrella, plans to make lobbying for just this sort of targeted investment a priority. A good opportunity to reach the ears of legislators is coming up on Oct. 5, "Ticket to Ride Day," when the group will travel by bus to join transit advocates from around the state at the capitol rotunda in Harrisburg for an 11 a.m. rally. If you can't make it, find another way make sure Harrisburg gets the message: it's in everyone's interest to preserve public transit.