By Blue Views staff
Last year, Chester County came close to losing its train.
In 2025, SEPTA faced a structural budget gap of $213 million. The causes were the end of federal pandemic aid and state funding that hadn’t kept pace with rising costs.[i] Without new money from Harrisburg, SEPTA adopted what everyone called a “doomsday” budget: a 45% service cut and a 21.5% fare increase. It would have shut down five Regional Rail lines entirely. One of them was the Paoli/Thorndale line, which links nearly two dozen stops between Philadelphia and Chester County.
The first round of cuts did begin.[ii]Locally, SEPTA’s plan eliminated the Route 204 bus between Eagleview and the Paoli station and reduced service on routes such as the 104 between West Chester and 69th Street.[iii]
The Paoli/Thorndale line is not a city amenity that happens to reach the suburbs. It carries commuters from Thorndale, Downingtown, Exton, Malvern, and Paoli to jobs in Philadelphia and along the Main Line. It carries students, older residents who no longer drive, and workers coming the other way to jobs in Chester County. It keeps cars off Route 202 and the Schuylkill Expressway. And it supports property values in every town with a station.
Business owners understood this immediately. The president of the Wayne Business Association said losing the line would be catastrophic for the local economy.[iv]Chester County legislators held a press conference at the Paoli station to oppose the cuts.
How it was saved, and why that’s not enough
The line survived because Governor Josh Shapiro approved a transfer of capital funds to SEPTA. That bought the system about two years of breathing room. But it was not recurring operating funding, and the final state budget didn’t include any. In other words, the problem was postponed, not solved.
Shapiro has repeatedly proposed a permanent fix. In his 2026–27 budget address, he called for shifting a portion of sales tax revenue into the state’s Transportation Trust Fund to support mass transit.[v]The obstacle has been the Republican-controlled state Senate. Senate Republicans criticized Shapiro’s earlier diversion of federal highway money to SEPTA and argued for other spending priorities.[vi] Some Republicans even floated privatizing SEPTA’s bus service.[vii]
Readers deserve both sides. Critics argue, with some justice, that patching transit with one-time transfers is no way to run a railroad. Taxpayers can end up paying more when agencies lurch from crisis to crisis.[viii]Fiscal conservatives also point out that Shapiro’s 2026–27 budget proposal spent $4.6 billion more than the state expected to collect, drawing on the Rainy Day Fund.[ix]And SEPTA itself has to keep proving it spends wisely. It reports saving about $30 million through austerity measures such as a management pay freeze and fewer outside consultants.[x]
These are reasonable concerns. They are arguments for a stable, accountable funding formula, which is exactly what transit advocates and the governor have been asking for. They are not arguments for letting Chester County’s rail line die.
Transit funding is decided in Harrisburg. On November 3, every state House seat and half of the state Senate are on the ballot. Democrats hold a slim majority in the House, and Republicans have an edge in the Senate.[xi]Chester County’s legislative races, including the 44th Senate District, help decide whether a permanent transit fix ever reaches the governor’s desk.
The next SEPTA crisis is already on the calendar. Chester County voters can help decide whether it ends with another emergency patch or a permanent solution. Vote for legislators who will fund the trains for good – Josh Shapiro and the Democrats in Harrisburg have been working for permanent funding. Let’s let them finish the job.
[i] Mass Transit, “On Day 1 of SEPTA’s public budget hearings, riders were scared by proposed cuts.”
[ii] https://whyy.org/articles/septa-cuts-paoli-thorndale-chester-county/
[iii] https://centralbucksnews.com/news/2025/aug/20/how-septa-cuts-will-affect-bus-train-trolley-routes-in-southeastern-pa
[iv] https://whyy.org/articles/septa-cuts-main-line-business-paoli-thorndale/
[v] https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/live-pa-gov-shapiro-to-deliver-2026-2027-budget-address/4344446/
[vi] https://www.yahoo.com/news/gov-josh-shapiro-unveil-next-110049982.html
[vii] https://whyy.org/articles/septa-cuts-paoli-thorndale-chester-county/
[viii] https://penncapital-star.com/videos/the-pennsylvania-capital-stars-week-in-focus-september-12-2025/
[ix] https://wp-brooklyn.enclave.vn/?p=28445
[x] https://www.old.railwayage.com/?p=172296
[xi] https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/05/pennsylvania-primary-elections-2026-house-congress/
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