“The Hub” is a weekly round-up of transportation related news in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Check back weekly to keep up-to-date on the issues Clean Air Council’s transportation staff finds important.
Want to be more involved in the fight for public transit? Apply today for the Community Organizing Fellowship In Lancaster and the Lehigh Valley! Apply with TransitForAll PA here.
TransitForAll PA: Shapiro’s Budget Address Does Not meet the Moment for Transit Riders & Workers – Governor Shapiro’s budget address this week noted the lack of secure and recurring transit funding for the state, however his response did not properly address the transit needs of Pennsylvanians, especially those outside the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh region. Shapiro’s proposed solution moves sales tax money around, offering a band-aid to a system riddled with financial problems. This funding will not come into play until fiscal year 2027-2028, and in the meantime seven small, fixed-route transit systems across the state will hit their stated fiscal cliffs, meaning fair hikes and service cuts.
The Inquirer: Other Pa. transit systems are dealing with the fiscal crunch that hit SEPTA last year – Public transit systems across Pennsylvania are facing financial cliffs, resulting in fare hikes and service cuts. LANTA, the bus system in Lehigh and Northampton Counties, serves 11,000 daily riders and is the third-largest mass transit system in the state. Last week, service was cut 5%, with the number of trips reduced on 13 bus lines. Without dedicated funding coming, further cuts can be expected as well. The “flex-spending” solution offered by Governor Shapiro over the past two years mostly covers SEPTA in Philadelphia and PRT in Pittsburgh. The state’s other 33 smaller mass transit systems don’t typically see that assistance. Dollars promised to these systems by the governor also will not be seen until 2027, and not all systems have the time to wait. Without dedicated funding in the state budget from Harrisburg, these smaller systems are at the highest risk, and riders will have to be left behind.
NBC: SEPTA to cease using social media for trip cancellation alerts – Starting Monday, February 9th, SEPTA will no longer be sending out social media alerts to commuters about canceled trips. In the past, SEPTA has sent out tweets about specific route cancellations, and the reasons why, when available. The agency seeks to end alerts that are too general and might not reflect ongoing situations. An operator calling out no longer means delays on specific routes over the course of 8 hours. That was a result of COVID-era staffing shortages. There are better programs in place now to handle service disruptions, with better real-time updates available on the SEPTA app or website. Third-party apps, such as Google and Apple Maps, will still receive cancellation data as well.
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SEPTA: Transit Equity Day 2026
NBC: SEPTA rolls out leased rail cars to ease Regional Rail overcrowding
CBS Philadelphia: Philadelphia Parking Authority resumed enforcing meters, towing cars Tuesday
“The Hub” is a weekly round-up of transportation related news in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Check back weekly to keep up-to-date on the issues Clean Air Council’s transportation staff finds important.
Action Alert: All eyes on Governor Shapiro to propose a budget that moves ALL of Pennsylvania in his 2025-2026 Budget Address. Join Transit For All PA to call on Governor Shapiro to dedicate investments in public transportation and more! Register here.
The Inquirer: N.J., Pa. to see more than $200M restored for EV chargers in legal win over Trump administration – Pennsylvania and New Jersey are estimated to gain around $244 million in federal funding for electric vehicle charging stations after a legal ruling decides that obligated funds cannot be interrupted. A U.S. District Court Judge ruled that 20 states are owed the funding that was already allocated through the restoration of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program. The Federal Highway Administration overstepped its authority, according to the Judge, as funding was already approved by Congress.
University City District: UCD Transportation Workshop Report 2025 – Philadelphia’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure (OTIS) has partnered with University City District (UCD) to author a report highlighting the best strategies for making University City a safer, more accessible, stronger community and neighborhood. Two workshops hosted by UCD and OTIS in 2025 brought together various partners such as PennDOT, SEPTA, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, Drexel University, CHOP, UPenn, and others. Organizations, government agencies, and private-sector partners identified short and long term priorities and goals for UCD, and paths forward. Read the full report and review the collected data here.
BillyPenn: ‘Nature at Noon’ and other activities to get you outside this winter – The Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University is running a program called Nature at Noon for Philadelphians this winter. The group visits the City’s park spaces, green spots, waterways, and other outdoor spaces across Philadelphia. Research has shown that being outdoors for at least 2 hours per week is beneficial for overall health, can help regulate moods, and reduce stress levels. Nature at Noon seeks to bring the health benefits to members, as well as create community. The group engages in various outdoor activities such as nature walks, birdwatching, and exploration of spaces such as Bartram’s Garden, Penn Treaty Park, and more.
Other Stories
NBC: SEPTA steadily restoring services following major winter storm
95Revive: I-95 News & Construction Updates for 2026
The Inquirer: The street of the future isn’t just for cars — it’s designed for life
ABC: New York City’s congestion pricing one year later: Has the toll been a success?
Bicycle Coalition: Vision Zero Philadelphia Conference 2026
The Inquirer: Temple has released its plan for the next decade. See what the North Philadelphia university has in mind.
Clean Air Council is thrilled to share that we have received William Penn Foundation’s Increasing Investment in Philadelphia Public Parks grant funding!
This funding builds on the Council’s previous KaBOOM! Playful Learning Spaces project to expand the project to four additional park areas that will include additional asphalt art murals painted on the paved trail, play and rest structures immediately adjacent in the park next to the trail, as well as wayfinding signs. The Council’s current project will continue to focus on connecting people to greenspace and directly incorporate the community’s ideas and hopes for new playful learning spaces. Our aim is tp create more welcoming entrances to the park, establish deeper connections to nature, and offer improved park and trail experiences for residents in West and Southwest Philadelphia.
The Council plans to meet with Cobbs Creek Community stakeholders over the 2025 summer and kick off our community engagement process in late 2025 and early 2026 with some fun activities and food. Residents interested in staying informed about this project can email transportation@cleanair.org to learn more.
“The Hub” is a weekly round-up of transportation related news in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Check back weekly to keep up-to-date on the issues Clean Air Council’s transportation staff finds important.
Join the Transit For All PA campaign for sustainable transit funding to keep our State moving forward.
CBS News: SEPTA begins charging for parking on weekends, holidays at lots and garages – SEPTA is reinstating parking fees at its parking lots and garages in another effort to reel in more money before impending service cuts. Beginning Monday, SEPTA will charge $2 for surfaced lots and $4 for garages, on both weekends and holidays.
Plan Philly: Penn’s Landing park over I-95 in Philly is taking shape. Here’s what to know – After a series of overnight closures, a busy section of I-95 will reopen at the end of this week with a portion of the new overhead cap completed. The entire cap, consisting of three sections, is expected to be completed by 2029. The Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC), under a separate contract and in partnership with the city, will build a new park that will include green space situated over the then-completed I-95 cap.
Chalkbeat: Planned SEPTA service cuts will mean slower, less reliable commutes for Philly students – Philly middle and high school students, who are eligible for free SEPTA cards via a contract with the school district and SEPTA, are generally expected to use public transportation to get to school. These students are slated to experience unreliable transport, delays and inefficient routes if planned SEPTA cuts go through. Philadelphia’s Northeast neighborhoods, which show high student ridership on public transport, are expected to be hit particularly hard by cuts.
Other Stories
The Inquirer: From alerting riders to changing Google Maps, here’s how SEPTA is preparing for service cuts
StreetsBlog USA: Five of the Ugliest Transportation Policies In the ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill
Metro Philadelphia: SEPTA to shut down Center City trolley tunnel for maintenance
6abc: Meter price increase takes effect in Center City Philadelphia
PlanPhilly: Passenger count at Wilmington Airport tops half a million amid expansion efforts
