LOWER MERION \u2014 During a special board meeting this week, the township commissioners adopted a resolution addressing proposed SEPTA cuts.<\/p>\n
Last month, SEPTA officials announced they need to cut service by 45 percent and increase fares by more than 20 percent due to a shortage in state funding.<\/p>\n
According to information released by SEPTA in April, the transit agency faces a $213 million budget deficit beginning July 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile SEPTA is already one of the most efficient transit agencies in the country, additional austerity measures, such as a hiring freeze and administrative cuts, have reduced the size of this deficit from $240 million to $213 million,\u201d SEPTA officials said in a press release.<\/p>\n
According to information from SEPTA regarding the proposed future of the Paoli\/Thorndale Line beginning in August, weekday services would be reduced to 30-minute peak and 60-minute off-peak service on the Paoli\/Thorndale Line. Weekend service will be reduced to every two hours.<\/p>\n
Then, all service would be eliminated on the Paoli\/Thorndale Line in January.<\/p>\n
On the Cynwyd line, weekday service will be reduced by up to 50 percent beginning in August, with all service being eliminated in January.<\/p>\n
During the Lower Merion special board meeting this week, Todd Sinai, commissioners president, addressed the township\u2019s resolution supporting SEPTA.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is hard to imagine the Main Line without the Main Line,\u201d Sinai said. \u201cThis is a township that grew up around a series of train stations that are proposed to no longer be that.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Lower Merion\u2019s resolution, the SEPTA cuts include the elimination of five Regional Rail Lines, 50 bus lines, and a 9 p.m. curfew on the remaining services.<\/p>\n
\u201c[T]hese service cuts, and especially those to the Paoli\/Thorndale and Cynwyd train lines and the 44, 52, 103, and 106 bus lines, will have a devastating effect on the historic \u2018Main Line\u2019 community of Lower Merion Township,\u201d according to the resolution.<\/p>\n
Lower Merion officials say the eight train stops and four bus lines picked for elimination are vital for local businesses, commercial areas, and the township\u2019s six hospitals, universities, and colleges.<\/p>\n
\u201cLower Merion in turn depends on the health and vitality of the broader southeastern Pennsylvania region, which also would be devastated by the proposed service reductions, with serious and long-lasting effects on SEPTA\u2019s 400,000 daily riders and the communities served in the region, a significant increase in vehicles on area roadways causing unbearable traffic conditions and excessive air pollution, and many fewer jobs in the region with enormous negative economic impact for the Commonwealth and local governments,\u201d according to the resolution.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: May 19, 2025 at 1:44 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOWER MERION \u2014 During a special board meeting this week, the township commissioners adopted a resolution addressing proposed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[182,183,185,184,186,200,139,28,199],"class_list":["post-2693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-local-news","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township","tag-montgomery-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-mlt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2693","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=2693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}