Governor Josh Shapiro directed Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Secretary Mike Carroll on September 8 to approve the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s (SEPTA) request to use up to $394 million in capital assistance funds for daily operations.
On Friday, September 5, SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer sent a letter to PennDOT requesting this flexibility, and with the Shapiro Administration’s approval, SEPTA will be able to preserve existing service and avoid planned service cuts for the next two years.
Governor Shapiro and his administration have already taken several measures to support SEPTA and strengthen mass transit across the Commonwealth. For two years in a row, the Governor has proposed the first major increase in state transit funding in more than a decade, including $292 million in new funding in his 2025-26 proposed budget that would grow to $1.5 billion over five years. He also secured $80 million in additional funding for mass transit in the 2024-25 bipartisan budget and, last November, flexed $153 million in federal highway funds to prevent SEPTA from making immediate service cuts and enacting a 21 percent fare increase.
As a condition of its approval of SEPTA’s request, the Shapiro administration instructed SEPTA to continue to address its structural challenges and report to PennDOT every 120 days the steps taken and progress made to increase efficiencies within the system.
Full details on this announcement are posted at https://www.pa.gov/governor/newsroom/2025-press-releases/shapiro-admin-approves-septa–394-million-capital-funding-mainta
