http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/10109504.htm

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TV morning news shows were saying that an unnamed legislator was saying that PA legislature would not deal with this before the end of the year.

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

Nobody's arguing that SEPTA isn't the best managed agency but, honestly, why the hell would they literally "create these budget's to create a crisis"? If they think somebody's stealing all the money, they need to come up with some proof, cuz I doubt SEPTA's doing it just for kicks.

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Welcome to Philadelphia. Here's how you can help us make our great city even better:

• Write to your state and local elected officials
• Report suspicious activity to the police department

SEPTA gets less dedicated funding (quite a lot less) than any other major transit agency in the nation.

The state legislature has barely granted SEPTA enough budget increases to keep up with inflation in many of the past ten years, let alone to cope with rising health care costs, etc.

Those skyrocketing health care costs combine very nicely with exorbitant gas prices to produce an environment in which the agency's expenditures have gone through the roof, and yet Harrisburg sees fit to grant a relative pittance...

And these guys have the gall to accuse SEPTA of "making up" their budget crises?

If anyone is laid off at the SEPTA, the first to go should be Faye Moore and her executive staff; she, by far, has been the worst General Manager that SEPTA has ever had and the results are clear: slow and inefficient service plus indifferent and ignorant management equals fed-up passengers and declining ridership.

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Niksiz, I've asked you several times before to back up your claims of gross managerial inefficiency, but as of yet, you haven't. Can you prove with NUMBERS and not RANTINGS that Septa is worse run than any comparable agency?

Skyscraper, this this getting a little old. The PRIVATE railroads all failed in the 1960s and 70s because they could not compete with trillions of dollars worth of subsidies for cars.

The Pennsylvania, the New York Central, the Reading...these were all paradigm-changing corporations their day - with viscous capitalist methods - so why do you think that relatively small public transit agencies should be able to do better?

Thunda -

Right with you. But also, if Septa were privatized, they would simply take the profitable routes - creaming - and would cut and reduce those routes upon which they didn't make money.

Now in some cases, such as the silly little Bala Cynwyd R6 Regional rail line, that would probably be fine - unless you are a little old lady or man who needs that line to get to the CC hospitals.

But many of the lines would be done away with - lines where there is a very real need.

Also, can you imagine any private transit company running transit against the grain - allowing workers to get to suburban jobs. The entire system would become nothing but a way of getting people into CC for a 9:00 start and home again after 5:00 PM.

What needs to happen is for Septa to realize that its' role in our area is far greater than simply moving people around - it should see itself as one of the engines of economic development.

That's what the good systems do . . . and a private system would never do. Unfortunately, Septa is not among the good ones.

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

SEPTA is actually underfunded for the number of people it serves when compared to transit systems in other cities. Also when people talk about the amount of money it takes to fund public transportation, they rarely take in to account the huge amounts of money we pour into building, maintaining and policing highways or the saving it provides in terms of air qulaity and asthma. In terms of economic development, adequately funding SEPTA is really a no-brainer, no matter where you are on the politcal spectrum. The problem is that so many years of budget brinksmanship ("we really are going to have cancel service this year") instead of consistently pushing for a teady revenue source has made rural Republicans in Harrisburg deaf to the calls even if SEPTa "really means it" this year.