Unfare Play

SEPTA is acting like the Bush administration.

by Nathaniel Popkin

The president is a pawn in his own war games. The neo-cons are pushing hard to make it impossible for Bush not to bomb Iran; their hope is that in "self-defense" Israel will attack some military installation in Iran, Tehran will respond by targeting American military personnel in Iraq and Bush will have no choice but to slip on the black satin coat that says "Commander in Chief." Though he's been told our intelligence is too thin, the risks too high, and that an attack would likely put soldiers in Iraq at even greater risk, he won't be able to resist.

What strikes me as so beleaguering about this scenario is Bush's willful lack of control. In the end, he'll insist there was simply no other way.

It's inevitable, isn't it?

SEPTA General Manager Faye Moore plays the Bush role with precision when she says that by suing the transit agency to preserve transfers, the city is forcing her to raise the price of tokens and transfers. As usual she wants us to believe that SEPTA, who this spring was allocated an additional $150 million annually, will run a deficit anyway. Sorry, she says, we have no other choice.

Many readers know I'm a loyal defender of SEPTA; I like riding transit — to me, it's an integral part of city life. The service is usually excellent, the drivers and conductors friendly, the stations clean. Just yesterday, I grabbed the 21 on Walnut Street to the 32 at Broad all the way out to East Falls. Later, I had to get from the main campus of Philadelphia University to the university's design satellite in Manayunk: I took the R6. No other way would have been faster or more pleasant. At the end of the day the train had me back in Center City in just 16 minutes. From there I walked home — but I could have caught the 47, if I had desired.

The day's transit cost me considerably, one token and a transfer ($1.95) plus $9 on regional rail, $10.95 total. Under Moore's proposal, I would have spent another quarter — hardly a difference. But what SEPTA officials really want — just as Bush in his heart of hearts wishes to go to war with Iran — is to eliminate transfers all together, so that every time you change routes you pay again. Moore is betting that the threat of a fare hike will force the city to drop its legal suit against the elimination of transfers. Then she'll be able to tell her patrons in Harrisburg that she's a prudent fiscal manager worthy of their trust.

Forgive me for introducing another analogy, but this strategy strikes me as a fool's errand, akin to the Jews of Berlin trying to please the roaming Nazi guards. Faye, these folks don't believe that transit is a public good; to them it's just like welfare — or socialized medicine. Real Pennsylvanians drive cars.

Dedicated funding was supposed to make it possible for SEPTA, faced annually with a political battle, to plan and implement major structural changes. Everyone knows the current fare system is fragmented and outdated, that a single fare card is the solution. Mass transit works as a system and fails miserably when the rider can't change easily between lines. SEPTA pitches itself as one of the only completely inter-modal agencies in the country. Yet — and this fare hike is case in point — it refuses to operate that way. Last week's announcement should have been instead that SEPTA is expediting a new fare and operations pro forma that will introduce a single fare card for all modes and make bus, subway, trolley and rail a single, integrated, intensively synchronized system — that in Philadelphia, perhaps unlike Washington, policy failure is no longer inevitable.

Septa must stop using its riders to please Harrisburg. We, the citizens of this city, are your patrons. Stop making the budget your top priority and do what you are mandated to do: provide efficient transportation to as many people as you can. Make it possible — enticing, fun, simple — to get around. Increase service, lower fares and then, only then, tell Harrisburg that you are solving one of the most pressing issues facing the world: global warming. Tell them that you've assured the economic future of the commonwealth because Philadelphia is livelier, safer and more appealing. Then you won't have to pretend it's all out of your control.

Nathaniel Popkin is writer-in-residence at Philadelphia University.