Philadelphia lawyer George Bochetto demanded SEPTA halt service cuts and said he has been hired by a group of riders to sue the transit agency, in an email sent Sunday night.
“SEPTA’s planned service reductions are draconian in nature and will have a severe impact on racial and ethnic minorities and low-income citizens in Southeastern Pennsylvania without any legitimate basis,” Bochetto wrote in the notice, which was first reported by Big Trial on Substack.
Consumer advocate Lance Haver is among those involved in the action to block SEPTA’s service cuts, according to the Substack post. The action comes as Harrisburg has failed to approve new state funding for mass transit. The first round of service cuts began on Sunday.
“SEPTA’s legal counsel is reviewing the letter and intends to contact George Bochetto today,” said Andrew Busch, a spokesperson for the transit agency.
As of Monday morning, the lawsuit had not yet been filed and service remains cut.
GOP involvement?
Bochetto said in an interview Monday that a suit would challenge the service cuts on the grounds of a disproportionate impact on disadvantaged communities. SEPTA completed an equity analysis before adopting the cuts.
The rollback in service also is arbitrary, he said.
“They’re committing a fraud on the public,” Bochetto said, noting SEPTA has $390 million in a reserve fund. “There is no reason why these cuts are necessary.”
Haver will be a plaintiff in the action, Bochetto confirmed. He declined to discuss other groups or individuals who may join.
A former consumer affairs official in city government, Haver has for months railed against SEPTA for planning service cuts and a fare increase, arguing that the stabilization fund has enough money in it to hold off until a state budget is done.
The group plans to seek a judge’s injunction to stop the cuts, Bochetto said in the email, addressed to SEPTA General Counsel Gino Benedetti. That likely would require SEPTA to draw from its service stabilization fund instead of cutting bus routes and reducing trips across all modes of transit.
Haver told transit advocates that he was asked to join Sen. Joe Picozzi (R., Philadelphia) and Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) on a call with attorney George Bochetto to discuss a lawsuit, according to an email seen by The Inquirer.
“I would rather work with my friends, but if I work with people who I don’t agree with, that’s still OK with me, because the real goal here is to save the system, right?” Haver said in a Wednesday night interview.
Picozzi said Monday he had never spoken with Haver about a possible suit.
It was unclear Monday if any senators or GOP organizations are involved in backing the action.
Precedent for suing SEPTA
Bochetto said he and his clients plan to challenge the enabling legislation that created SEPTA in 1963 as violating the state constitution. He said that the law granted SEPTA broad latitude that properly belongs to state government itself, with no language spelling out its responsibilities.
It would not be the first time that a lawsuit has halted SEPTA’s plans.
Consumer groups and the city, led by Deputy Solicitor Mark A. Zecca, sued SEPTA in 2004, winning an injunction stopping the transit authority from slashing service and raising fares.
Early in 2005, then-Gov. Ed Rendell transferred federal highway money to SEPTA and other transit agencies and the proposed cuts and fare hike did not happen.
In 2007, a city suit stopped SEPTA from getting rid of free paper transfers, which would have required riders to pay two full fares when transferring. The suit charged that it was a capricious move that would have burdened disadvantaged riders, and a Common Pleas judge imposed an injunction.
Zecca said SEPTA has revenue coming in and could have waited until a state budget is finished, likely without having to tap the stabilization fund or a line of credit with PNC. “They’re holding the region hostage” to get the kind of funding they want.”
No movement in Harrisburg
SEPTA rolled out a first round of deep service cuts on Sunday, including the elimination of 32 bus routes.
The transit agency leadership had said it could not rely on hope that Gov. Josh Shapiro and the legislature would adopt a transportation-funding measure with new, long-term money for transit — as it did in 2024. Last November, Shapiro “flexed” $153 million of money allocated for interstate infrastructure projects to SEPTA.
Senate Republicans earlier this month passed a plan they said would provide a bridge for SEPTA for two years by shifting money from accounts in the Public Transportation Trust Fund that are reserved for mass transit capital projects, including upkeep, so SEPTA and other agencies could use them for operating expenses.
It would have generated about $1.2 billion over two years, roughly half to help keep SEPTA and other transit systems operating, with the rest going to fix up rural roads and bridges.
SEPTA said it was insufficient and objected to consuming money that is supposed to be used for infrastructure and maintenance on day-to-day operations.
House Democrats voted not to consider the GOP Senate’s transfer proposal.
Senate Republicans, including Sen. Frank Farry of Bucks County and Picozzi, who worked on the proposal, say it would have provided money to help SEPTA immediately and provided a basis for further negotiation.
What is the service stabilization fund?
There’s a long-standing disagreement about the nature of the service stabilization fund, which Haver has been advocating for SEPTA to use to alleviate the need for massive cuts. It differs from the Public Transportation Trust Fund, from which state Republicans proposed allowing SEPTA and other transit agencies to use capital money temporarily for operations.
Haver and others see the service stabilization fund as a rainy-day cushion that SEPTA can use in an emergency to shield riders from cuts and fare increases.
SEPTA officials have said it is more like a checking account it uses to pay anticipated bills and unexpected expenses, with some money in reserve for potential catastrophes such as flooding or collapsed infrastructure.
In response to Haver’s questions at a July SEPTA board meeting, staff members said there was about $396 million in the stabilization fund. SEPTA’s chief financial officer said that the cuts would save around $5 million per month.
The transit agency projects a $213 million deficit in its operating budget.
“You don’t have to do this,” Haver said.
But SEPTA Board Member Michael Carroll, who is deputy city managing director for transportation and infrastructure, said then that “service stabilization” is a bit of a misnomer.
“I can appreciate that at the surface level, it seems like there’s this pot of money that you can just draw down and down and down and you don’t need to make hard decisions,” Carroll said. But he added, “There’s no scenario where we can spend it down to zero.”
Transit Forward Philadelphia, a group that has been campaigning for more state help for SEPTA, called the suit “grandstanding” and urged lawmakers to get back to work.
“These legislators should head back to Harrisburg and accomplish the one thing that can head off these cuts: passing a budget that contains sustainable long term funding for transit,“ the statement said.
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