Whether you’re from State College or Scranton, Philly or Erie, every Pennsylvanian deserves transportation access to opportunity. On Feb 4th, National Transit Equity Day, Governor Shapiro didn’t deliver a public transit budget proposal that meets the needs of our Commonwealth. And so, we need you to join thousands of transit riders and workers across the state for two statewide calls to build the vision and organizing plan for the service we deserve!
Last week, 80+ transit riders and transit workers across Pennsylvania joined Transit for All PA’s All Eyes on Governor Shapiro Budget Watch Party to see if he would heed our call to elevate transit as a top priority in his annual budget address. Over the previous three weeks, over 3,000 letters were sent to the Governor to that effect. Although Governor Shapiro made cursory mention of the “essential” nature of transit in his remarks, his actual 2026 budget proposal falls far short of our public transit needs in both urban and rural communities.
Instead, the budget that Governor Shapiro laid out on Rosa Parks’ Birthday keeps transit without a dedicated source of funding, pulling from sales tax revenue in the general fund. That leaves transit funding vulnerable to the whims of our divided and contentious state legislature, and draws from a source of funding that is competitive with other basic needs including education and healthcare. Moreover, Shapiro’s budget proposal requires that our transit agencies draw down their reserves to zero in the five years, and only manages to maintain our existing austerity levels of service. This is not the expanded and dedicated state transit funding solution- long overdue- that residents of the Commonwealth need and deserve.
In just the last five years, transit systems across Pennsylvania have been cut dramatically, leaving our state’s older adults, disabled residents, youth, and no car households without the bus lines they rely on to access jobs, healthcare, food and community. Funding austerity coupled with transit worker shortages have devastated rural intercity transit in Pennsylvania, severed municipal access to transit in mid-sized urban areas like Centre County, and resulted in overall transit service cuts of 20% with Pittsburgh Regional Transit. The Governor’s 2026 budget proposal does not provide the resources necessary to prevent the imminent funding cliffs of agencies like SEPTA and PRT without requiring that these agencies use up their limited reserves; it certainly does nothing to reverse the cuts we’ve seen in communities across the state.
We deserve better. That is why over 8,000 Pennsylvania transit riders and operators have taken action over the past year, and that is why we’re organized to fight now for the service we deserve.
On Thursday, February 27th, Transit for All PA will host the first of two statewide transit funding calls to develop our demands and our action plan for winning Visionary Transit across Pennsylvania. We need transit riders and operators across the commonwealth to help us define the priorities they see in their communities to ensure transit moves more of us.
Join Us for our Transit for All PA Planning Calls with Transit Riders and Workers all Across the Commonwealth! Register Here for our first call on February 27th from 5:30-7:00 pm.
The time is now: we know that we get one opportunity to focus the PA legislature and pass a funding package that meets ALL our transit needs. That’s why we’re going big, and organizing towards three visionary goals:
- Funding that restores our transit service to 2019 levels for communities across the Commonwealth, and matched to the travel patterns of post-pandemic ridership.
- Local enabling legislation to raise the local capital dollars needed to attract major federal investment, which Pennsylvania is currently losing out on to places like Ohio, Colorado, Arizona, and Washington.
- A project prioritization rubric like Virginia has that ensures that PennDOT’s billions of dollars of transportation funding are moving the most people, benefiting our economies, reducing congestion and improving air quality.
Help us to build our demand and the plan to win. Register to join our statewide Transit for All PA Visionary Transit platform now!
Governor Shapiro is right to recognize that transit is essential. But we need him, and all our state elected officials, to invest in our transit systems at the levels we deserve. Along with hundreds of other riders and transit workers, we’ll see you on the 27th; we’re done with decline and we’re ready to organize for a budget that moves us!
**This blog was also published in slightly altered form on the Pittsburghers for Public Transit website.