Septa Victory: February 28th, 2005

As a result of months of pressure from SEPTA riders and labor unions across the state, Philadelphians will get to keep our public transit system. Aside from participating in demonstrations in Harrisburg urging the Governor to flex the funding for SEPTA, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union is also part of a lawsuit that the Mayor, the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, and Action Alliance filed against the SEPTA board.

In a press conference Monday morning, the governor of Pennsylvania announced that he has earmarked $412 million dollars from the state's "highway dollars" over to the state's public transit fund. We can expect that these funds will rescind the proposed service cuts and fare increases through January 2007.

Consequently, SEPTA has decided to postpone the implementation date of their proposed fare hikes and service cuts until a later date. The hearing against the SEPTA board has been postponed as well and will be heard On March 17th at 2pm in courtroom 426 City Hall if still necessary.

Thanks to the efforts of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, labor unions, and other SEPTA riders, Philadelphians will be able to affordably ride to their doctors appointments, welfare to work jobs, and schools as usual.