Friends,
What does being involved in your community mean to you? For me, it’s everything from volunteering to networking with the Chamber’s Young Professionals Council—and right now, it also means standing up for one of the most critical resources in our region: SEPTA.
SEPTA serves over 700,000 people every day, including many young professionals who rely on it to navigate their careers and lives in Greater Philadelphia. Without adequate funding, this lifeline will be drastically reduced. In my interactions with you, our members, I’ve heard our young professionals ask our elected officials questions about the state of public transportation. I’ve heard people talk about taking a train, bus, or trolley to our networking events throughout the city. I’ve heard people say, “Man, I really don’t want to be commuting to the office, but at least I can take the train.” Because of these comments and more, your YPC Advisory Board is sending this letter urging the state to take immediate action to implement a dedicated and adequate funding solution for SEPTA, and we encourage you to lend your voices here.
Why do we need to write this letter?
Let’s be clear: SEPTA is in need of our help. Without increased funding from the Ss, SEPTA will need to roll back their services to COVID-era skeleton crews while also increasing fares by as much as 30%. When I share these numbers within my circles, I hear the response that the transit organization already increased fares this year – an attempt to keep the organization operating at their current capacity while we urge our state legislators to provide a dedicated funding solution for transit.
At the end of the day, SEPTA relied on about $185 million in budgetary relief from our state and local governments. Having received less than a quarter of that amount, this shortfall is causing us to rapidly approach a full-on crisis.
We have two actions that you can take today.
Post a video of you engaging with a SEPTA service; bonus points if you speak on the value of SEPTA, and how much you need their transit options to get to/from work, play, and other functions in the region! Be sure to use hashtags #FundPATransportation and #FundPATransit and tag the Chamber (@ChamberPHL) on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X. If you need tips on how to get started with the video or would like some talking points, click here. For a glimpse of real leaders in our business community taking similar action, here’s a clip of Bret Perkins, Comcast, advocating for this vital resource in our community.
Additionally, I hope you will join our letter-writing campaign to tell legislators your reasons why sustainable SEPTA funding is vital for the region and your own livelihood in a matter of clicks. Please use these resources to make sure that your voice is accurately heard by our representatives.
I’m proud to stand with the Chamber and YPC in advocating for SEPTA’s future, and I hope you’ll join me. Let’s show our elected officials that we won’t settle for anything less than reliable transit. Together, we can secure a well-funded SEPTA system that supports our work, lives, and the future of Greater Philadelphia.
Thank you for stepping up.
Sincerely,
Christopher Crawford
Chair, YPC Advisory Board
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