Several other area towns have added their voices to calls to find funding for SEPTA.
North Wales officials unanimously passed a resolution backing the transit agency on Tuesday, while county officials planned to hold a press conference in Jenkintown on the same topic.
“I think everybody knows that SEPTA has challenges, but there’s no question that the service is essential, for not just North Wales but for the entire region,” said Mayor Neil McDevitt.
In November 2024 Governor Josh Shapiro announced a plan to use $153 million in federal highway capital dollars to make up a funding shortfall for the transportation agency and called on lawmakers to find more funding, and county officials have since made the case at train stations across the region for continued funding.
The latest stop in that tour: a visit by the county commissioners to the Jenkintown-Wyncote station was slated for Thursday afternoon, ahead of a Phillies game that night, where county officials planned to note that a planned 9 p.m. curfew for SEPTA could strand rail riders attending ballgames at the sports complex.
North Wales was originally served by a train station between Main and Second streets that opened in 1857 and is now occupied by a parking lot for the town’s fire company, according to the borough historic commission, and a new train station opened in 1873 that has been a center of the community ever since: in 2014 the town approved plans by SEPTA to expand the parking offered there, the station hosted a rare visit from a steam engine during the town’s 150th anniversary celebrations in 2019, and a new town zoning map adopted in 2023 expanded the options for development in the transit zone surrounding the station.
During the council meeting Tuesday night, McDevitt summarized the calls for funding across the region, and the impact their potential cuts could have to the town.
“Narberth started the process, because they are one of the lines that would be eliminated completely, through this reduction in service, and they’ve asked other communities to participate as well,” he said.
“For North Wales particularly, we would see approximately a 50 percent reduction in regional rail service. Currently, during off peak hours, trains run every hour: that would be reduced to every other hour a train would come through,” he said.
During peak hours, proposed cuts have yet to be determined, but weekend hours look likely to hurt towns like North Wales even more.
“If you’re going down to the Auto Show in Philly, or the Flower Show, you’d have to wait two hours for a train to come through,” McDevitt said.
“And then, for the Route 96 (bus) that runs right through town, it would reduce that by 20 percent, and you would have to wait about 40 minutes for a bus to come through, during the weekday time frame,” he said.
The resolution up for discussion calls SEPTA “an invaluable, irreplaceable, and foundational service” for the town, notes that it helps residents “as they commute to work, visit friends and family, travel to shops and restaurants, and meet their day-to-day transportation needs,” while calling the proposed cuts “devastating to the North Wales community,” before asking “regional and state policymakers (to) work together to address SEPTA’s immediate funding crisis, avert an impending transit disaster, and ultimately rebuild a stronger, more comfortable, more reliable system.”
The North Wales SEPTA station is seen in summer 2022.Council President Sal Amato asked how many other towns had passed or discussed similar resolutions, and McDevitt said he had heard that Narberth, Lower Merion, Hatboro and Media had already passed such motions; Upper Dublin and Upper Moreland were slated to vote on similar ones this week, and “about ten” more towns were discussing doing so.
“And there are many communities in Delaware County that are doing a joint letter, to their representatives asking for support,” McDevitt said.
After a unanimous vote, McDevitt added that he’s seen the impact of those proposed SEPTA cuts up close: he rides their rails monthly if not more often, and his son used it to commute until recently, and is keeping a close eye on the possible cuts.
“He was taking the train every day to work, and you never realize how important SEPTA is until you depend on it. Thank you for passing the resolution,” he said.
North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on June 10 at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street. For more information visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.
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