Three days after a judge ordered SEPTA to reverse all planned service cuts, Governor Josh Shapiro of Abington Township announced that PennDOT has been approved to fund SEPTA up to $394 million in capital assistance funds for daily operations.

According to the announcement released earlier today, SEPTA will be able to preserve existing service and avoid planned service cuts for the next two years. On Friday, the transit agency sent the letter below to PennDOT:

PennDOT’s response can be found here. In the letter, PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll explains why he believes the Senate-passed legislation fails to meet the needs of SEPTA and other mass transit agencies:

First, it would have provided a fraction of the funding that the Governor proposed as part of his proposal to provide new funding for system operations. Second, it would have required these systems to utilize their capital funding over two fiscal years to fill the gap without a revenue source to replace the lost funding they are already relying on for capital projects. Third, it would have taken funding away from capital projects already underway, thereby compromising the safety and efficiency of the transit system. Fourth, this Senate-passed bill would have only provided a temporary fix, at a time when systems are seeking assurance that the Commonwealth can provide long term sustainability to their operations. Fifth and most concerningly, this bill would have taken existing resources out of the PTTF, in the amount of $419 million, and sent them to the Motor License Fund for road paving projects. While PennDOT and the Shapiro Administration support funding for road repair projects and have allocated significant resources to that work, we do not believe utilizing mass transit funding for such purposes is sound public policy.

“This action ensures SEPTA will continue to provide critical transportation services ahead of and during high-profile events in 2026, including America’s 250th anniversary, the FIFA World Cup, and the MLB All-Star Game,” Shapiro said in the announcement. “Additionally, SEPTA will be able to continue to meet the needs of nearly 800,000 Pennsylvanians every day – including 52,000 students in the School District of Philadelphia and hundreds of thousands of workers who take SEPTA every day.”

“As a condition of its approval of SEPTA’s request, the Shapiro Administration instructed SEPTA to continue to address its structural challenges and report to PennDOT every 120 days the steps taken and progress made to increase efficiencies within the system,” the announcement continued.

SEPTA intends to restore all affected service by September 14, the same day the transit agency’s 21.5% fare hike is expected to begin.

You can watch Governor Shapiro’s comments on the funding decision below: