{"id":254298,"date":"2026-07-29T03:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/254298\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T03:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:33:15","slug":"philadelphians-are-riding-septa-24-hours-straight-hoping-to-improve-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/254298\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphians are riding SEPTA 24 hours straight hoping to improve it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ride the train! We ride the bus! We say \u2018No\u2019 to service cuts!\u201d<\/p>\n

A crowd of Philadelphia transit riders, community advocates and elected officials chanted these words over and over again outside of City Hall this morning. The group is pulling a bold stunt \u2014 riding SEPTA transit for 24 hours straight in an attempt to thwart budget cuts and fare increases.<\/p>\n

Transit Forward Philadelphia worked to organize the stunt. The group will be taking transit all across the region, on buses, trains and trollies, over the course of the day.<\/p>\n

The hope is to make services such as the city\u2019s Zero Fare Program<\/a> \u2014 which covers free around-the-clock fares for students \u2014 a permanent addition. They are proposing a Transit Access Fund<\/a> charter amendment and advocating for more inclusive programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSEPTA moves us,\u201d said Julio Rodriguez, policy director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. \u201cWhether it\u2019s from Trenton to Delaware to Lansdale to Overbrook to the airport, so it is crucial. Last year, students were late and didn\u2019t show up because of the SEPTA cuts. That is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council member Mark Squilla pointed to the city\u2019s ability to make a goal a reality when the need is there, especially this past month with America 250 celebrations and the FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe transit situation made the city more accessible,\u201d Squilla said. \u201cMade people go down to the arena area and the stadiums where the parking lots were half empty, and still be able to transfer 70,000 people down there. That doesn\u2019t need to be a special occasion. That needs to be every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Gloria \u201cSmooches\u201d Cartagena Hart advocated for affordable fares. (Julia Binswanger\/ Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

Gloria \u201cSmooches\u201d Cartagena Hart, a community organizer for the Kensington Corridor Trust, noted just how important SEPTA access<\/a> and student Key cards have been.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis access Key card helps our people and their family to get to where they need to get to,\u201d Cartagena Hart said. \u201cWe greatly need it. If they take it away, it\u2019s going to be a lot of suffering and struggling. It\u2019s bad enough people are already financially struggling, concerned about where they\u2019re going to get their next meal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow school is starting,\u201d she added. \u201cHow are the kids going to get to school?\u201d<\/p>\n

The crowd at City Hall included community members from different ages, backgrounds and neighborhoods \u2014 many dressed up in transit-themed T-shirts. Some made makeshift bus signs that read \u201ctransit moves us to our family and friends\u201d and \u201cbus lines are lifelines.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Civic leader and disability advocate Nico Meyering said many transit stops are still missing important amenities, like elevators, and that SEPTA costs can be even higher for Philadelphians with disabilities. Meyering books his rides a day in advance at a \u00a0cost of $5.75<\/a> one way, instead of the typical $2.90.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who works full time and takes SEPTA to get to work every day, who takes SEPTA to get to my doctor visits, and who uses SEPTA to get my own wife, who has her own disabilities, to her own care needs, SEPTA has been a valuable partner and an integral part of my life here in Philadelphia,\u201d he said. \u201cWithout SEPTA, I wouldn\u2019t be able to work full time, and I wouldn\u2019t be able to hold the civic leadership roles that I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 24-hour ride will include stops in between, said council member Rue Landau. Connections, after all, are a typical part of many SEPTA commutes. Essentially, however, this ride will be all day.<\/p>\n

\"\"Philadelphians commute on the Broadway Line on July 28, 2026. (Julia Binswanger\/ Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an essential experiment here for Philadelphia,\u201d said Landau. \u201cThat\u2019s going to show everybody how interconnected the city is by transit, how easy and accessible it is, and how the more we fund it, the more we expand it, and the more we fund low fare programs for low income people and students and our community college students, the better it will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

While spending all day on the train won\u2019t necessarily be easy, the group appeared ready to go.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that riding SEPTA for 24 hours is a great way to show how this system powers our city,\u201d Meyering said. \u201cAnd this system doesn\u2019t sleep any hour of the day for any rider that needs it. SEPTA is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cartagena Hart was similarly excited to embark on the 24-hour journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, I prepared myself to get a nice rest, sleep, and keep it going,\u201d Cartagena Hart said. \u201cIt\u2019s like Katy Perry, the song \u2018Roar.\u2019 If you don\u2019t open your mouth and speak up, nobody\u2019s going to hear you, so that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. \u201cWe ride…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[108461,7072,8003,990,564,69,71,70,42226,2618,21074,6080,108462],"class_list":["post-254298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-24-hour-transit","tag-buses","tag-city-hall","tag-city-council","tag-featured","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philly-transit","tag-septa","tag-trains","tag-transit","tag-transit-cuts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254298","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=254298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}