WILMINGTON — The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) is looking into the possibility of increasing bus service from northern Delaware to center city Philadelphia if dramatic SEPTA cuts come to pass.
DelDOT Secretary Shanté Hastings told members of the fiscal and economic policy analyst board this week that the department was looking at ways to continue service for the Delaware commuters. State transportation officials estimate that 2,900 commuters rely on the weekly rail service on the Wilmington/Newark line.
Delaware pays roughly $12 million to SEPTA each year for this service. But with SEPTA reckoning with a budget shortfall of $213 million, the transit agency would have to raise fares and cut service lines,
including all to northern Delaware.
Hastings said that DelDOT would consider shifting that funding back to offer a “bus bridge,” or a temporary system of using shuttles during disruptions to transit services.
“We are looking at leads to be able to deliver that in a different way, potentially shuttles or things like that,” she told the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council earlier this week.
DART First State officials confirmed that the agency is looking to provide bus service at the train stations in the event that service is suspended. SEPTA said that without funding from Pennsylvania, it would cut service, including Delaware service, by January 2026.
“We’re still in the initial planning stages of this, and there’s a lot of things we have to look into because we can’t operate that type of service internally,” DART First State Chief Custom Experience Officer Albert Loyola said.
This would be a first for DART as the contract with SEPTA is the only agreement the agency holds to transport Delawareans to Philadelphia.
If DART does offer a bus bridge, it would likely be only into center city Philadelphia. Today, the SEPTA line runs through Delaware County.
“It wouldn’t be an apples to apples comparison, just something that would give people the option compared to driving into the city,” Loyola said. “There’s 1,300 people a day [that ride SEPTA], so that’s potentially 1,300 cars on the road. This is definitely a moment where we need to look at it and at least provide an option.”
A recent analysis by
WHYY News’ Climate Desk found that the additional vehicle traffic regional planners say would result from the cuts could increase annual greenhouse gas emissions from Philadelphia’s transportation sector by roughly 4%.
Gov. Matt Meyer is also watching the situation closely, and sent a DelDOT representative to the SEPTA budget hearing earlier this week. The governor also wrote a
letter to the SEPTA Board that said “continuing this service is vitally important to economic vibrancy” in northern Delaware and southeastern Pennsylvania.
“The State of Delaware remains committed to its partnership with SEPTA. The recent completion of the $90 million Claymont station also demonstrates this commitment because our state understands the crucial role public transportation plays in supporting economic development and improving quality of life,” the governor wrote. “Cutting SEPTA service will hurt the most vulnerable members of our communities.”
Mila Myles, a spokeswoman for Meyer, said that no final decision regarding a possible bus bridge will be made until the SEPTA budget is finalized this summer.
