Funding issues prompt SEPTA to postpone capital projects

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) expects to defer several capital projects due to funding cuts in its fiscal-year 2013 capital budget proposal.

The $303 million spending plan reflects a 25 percent reduction compared to funding levels from three years ago, SEPTA officials said in a prepared statement. As a result, the agency will be unable to advance certain short- and long-term improvement projects, they said.

The capital budget will go largely toward regional signal system upgrades and other safety improvements. SEPTA also will set aside funds for equipment overhauls, and the purchase of new buses and paratransit vehicles to replace older vehicles.

Without additional funding, SEPTA will indefinitely postpone “critical overhauls to electrical substations to bridge repairs and station renovations,” agency officials said.

SEPTA has deferred a number of projects that it had anticipated completing under Act 44, which Pennsylvania lawmakers passed in 2007 to provide a dedicated source of transportation funding. Act 44, however, required new revenue streams and was never fully funded, agency officials said.

Nevertheless, they “remain optimistic” that funding for infrastructure improvements will be addressed, as Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, in his state budget address last month, noted the need for a "lasting" solution for transportation funding, the officials said.

"SEPTA will continue to work with Gov. Corbett and the General Assembly to secure a long-term, growing and predictable funding source for transportation throughout Pennsylvania," said SEPTA General Manager Joseph M. Casey.

A public hearing on the FY2013 capital budget proposal will be held April 11.