{"id":139612,"date":"2026-03-16T13:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/139612\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T13:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:30:08","slug":"mayors-budget-proposal-preserves-free-septa-rides-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/139612\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor\u2019s budget proposal preserves free SEPTA rides program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-uri=\"www.audacy.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmmt6q5sj001g01tx0610ayo3@published\" data-editable=\"text\" class=\"paragraph paragraph--station\">PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Transit advocates are breathing a sigh of relief after Mayor Cherelle Parker announced her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.audacy.com\/kywnewsradio\/news\/local\/philadelphia-mayor-parker-budget-proposal-economic-mobility\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">$6.967 billion budget proposal<\/a> would include funding for two programs that provide free SEPTA rides.<\/p>\n<p data-uri=\"www.audacy.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmmt6x5yu003g3b7xnt15rprx@published\" data-editable=\"text\" class=\"paragraph paragraph--station\">The mayor\u2019s budget includes $25 million for the Zero Fare program, which provides free SEPTA passes for low-income residents, and $10 million more to pay for the Key Advantage program, allowing municipal employees to ride free.<\/p>\n<p data-uri=\"www.audacy.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmmt6x6b4003h3b7xu3aym142@published\" data-editable=\"text\" class=\"paragraph paragraph--station\">Transit advocates were concerned that the mayor wouldn\u2019t budget money for the programs, but their fears were put to rest on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p data-uri=\"www.audacy.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmmt6x6cp003i3b7xj34z1fs9@published\" data-editable=\"text\" class=\"paragraph paragraph--station\">\u201cEconomic mobility starts with something very simple, and guess what that is? A reliable ride to work,\u201d said Parker.<\/p>\n<p data-uri=\"www.audacy.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmmt6x6e8003j3b7x6k5teao7@published\" data-editable=\"text\" class=\"paragraph paragraph--station\">\u201cThat\u2019s over 60,000 people on the Zero Fare program, over 13,000 municipal workers that have that certainty that their ride to work is not going to be taken away,\u201d said Stephen Bronskill, coalition manager for the group Transit Forward Philadelphia.<\/p>\n<p data-uri=\"www.audacy.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmmt6x6fi003k3b7xo4r3iaqf@published\" data-editable=\"text\" class=\"paragraph paragraph--station\">While he appreciates the funding, Bronskill said he\u2019s continuing to push for dedicated money for the free rides, avoiding the annual budget angst.<\/p>\n<p data-uri=\"www.audacy.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmmt6x6gq003l3b7x9gv60y9p@published\" data-editable=\"text\" class=\"paragraph paragraph--station\">\u201cWe are really grateful that the city is listening to the voices of transit riders. So we can build on that, again, through establishing a Transit Access Fund,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p data-uri=\"www.audacy.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmmt6x6i4003m3b7xoi00ph1a@published\" data-editable=\"text\" class=\"paragraph paragraph--station\">Bronskill said the city is doing its part to support transit. Now, he\u2019s turning his attention to the state.<\/p>\n<p>\n          Featured Image Photo Credit: Holli Stephens\/KYW Newsradio, file\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Transit advocates are breathing a sigh of relief after Mayor Cherelle Parker announced her&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-139612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-philadelphia","9":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","10":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}