SEPTA is facing another lawsuit – this time, over its decision to institute a 21.5% fare hike last month.
Attorney George Bochetto filed a class action complaint Wednesday afternoon in the Court of Common Pleas, on behalf of consumer advocate Lance Haver and the riding public. Bochetto’s firm successfully obtained a court order in early September reversing the authority’s 20% service cuts. Haver was one of the plaintiffs in that case.
A day after the injunction was issued, SEPTA announced it would seek state approval to reallocate nearly $400 million in capital funds to restore service and cover its $213 million operating budget shortfall over a two-year period.
Bochetto and Haver now want a judge to undo the price increase, which bumped up fares from $2.50 to $2.90 for subway, trolley and bus trips. The lawsuit calls for refunds for anyone who had paid the higher price since the new rates went into effect Sept. 14.
Should the court rule in their favor, the authority could be on the hook for a hefty bill. SEPTA officials, during a hearing early last month, said the new fares were expected to generate an extra $571,000 a week.
“SEPTA and its leaders need to be reined in,” Bochetto and his team wrote in the complaint. “SEPTA’s riders must be made whole from the flagrant abuse of discretion reflected in the Fare Increase.”
A spokesperson for the authority, Andrew Busch, said Thursday that SEPTA was still reviewing the lawsuit and was not prepared to comment.
SEPTA representatives told Metro in mid-September that the authority’s leadership team did not feel there was a way to balance the budget and maintain service levels without the hike, which is anticipated to bring in an additional $31 million a year.
SEPTA riders are now paying $2.90 for every bus, trolley and subway trip.MELISSA MITMAN / METRO FILEBochetto and Haver’s complaint incorporates many of the arguments used in the earlier case, alleging that SEPTA concocted a funding crisis to extort money from Harrisburg lawmakers at the expense of riders.
The fare increase, they assert, could have been averted by using the Service Stabilization Fund, an authority account that contained, as of early September, more than $300 million.
SEPTA has also seriously underplayed the impact of fare invasion, the lawsuit claims. Transit officials estimate that turnstile-jumping and the like cost the authority between $30 and $50 million a year.
But Bochetto’s firm, in the complaint, argue that the total is far higher, with its calculations ranging from $300 million to upwards of $400 million annually.
“Based on news coverage, the observations of law enforcement, interviews with riders, and other publicly available facts and information, the majority of people using SEPTA buses do not pay a fare,” they wrote.
Busch said the authority has no data or evidence to support such a number.
SEPTA has prioritized enhanced enforcement of fare evasion in recent months, partially in response to concerns expressed by Republican legislators in Harrisburg.
Transit police issued more than 4,300 citations, which can carry a fine of up to $300, for fare evasion in the first six months of 2025, up 74% from the same period last year, according to the authority.
Fare gates installed at 69th Street Transportation have reduced evasion by about 20%, SEPTA representatives have said. The devices are currently being put up at City Hall station, and plans call for further expansion.
Riders wait at a Center City bus stop Monday, Aug. 25, the first weekday of the 20% SEPTA service reduction.JACK TOMCZUK / METRO FILELawyers for SEPTA continue to pursue an appeal of Court of Common Pleas Judge Sierra Thomas Street’s Sept. 4 order mandating that the authority bring back the bus routes and other service that was axed Aug. 24.
Leaving the ruling intact exposes SEPTA to “future, identical legal challenges” that undermine the decision-making authority of the transit system’s board, attorney Matthew A. Glazer claimed in a recent Commonwealth Court filing. Bochetto has moved to have the case dismissed as moot.
Street’s Sept. 4 injunction permitted SEPTA to roll out the fare hike. An order she issued a week before barred the authority from taking any further action associated with its ‘doomsday’ budget plan, including any price increases.
After the authority received approval from Gov. Josh Shapiro's administration to cover its operating deficit with capital dollars, a prominent state lawmaker, Democratic Sen. Vincent Hughes, wrote a letter urging SEPTA not to proceed with the planned fare hikes.
More recently, SEPTA has come under federal scrutiny for a series of fires affecting its Silverliner IV fleet of train cars. Replacing the 50-year-old vehicles is a projected $2 billion capital cost that will almost certainly require the authority to go into debt.
