Transportation issues across the state took center stage during a special meeting held Friday in Reading.
The House Transportation Committee met in City Hall, its fifth of eight Moving PA Forward meetings that focus on finding ways for the state to invest for its roads, bridges and public transit systems as tax revenue shrinks. Updates on transportation issues in Berks County were also provided.
“During the course of this tour we will hear directly from urban, suburban and rural communities across the state so that voices can be heard and the Legislature can make informed decisions,” said Committee Majority Chairman Ed Neilson.
Neilson, who represents communities in Philadelphia, stressed that the state is long overdue for a new transportation funding policy.
The General Assembly last addressed transportation funding in 2013 by passing Act 89, which raised an additional $2.3 billion annually for transportation funding. The legislation eliminated the retail gas tax, but increased the wholesale tax.
It also increased vehicle registration and driver licensing fees, as well as some traffic violation fines.
But officials from the Department of Transportation sounded the alarm about how the gas tax — the traditional source of the majority of repair funds — is dwindling as electric and hybrid vehicles rise in popularity. And that could spell trouble for the state’s roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure.
A new fee enacted by the Shapiro administration would see drivers of electric vehicles pay $200 next year (it jumps to $250 in 2026). Owners of hybrid cars, who still buy some gas for fuel, would pay 25% of the fee, or $50 in 2025.
The fee is expected to generate about $16 million in 2025, all of which will be deposited in the state’s Motor License Fund. But more money is needed.
“We have 13 million people in Pennsylvania that rely on our transportation network every single day,” PennDOT Secretary Michael Carroll said. “And those people expect us to deliver a safe and efficient transportation network — it’s a monumental task.”
The chief focus of Friday’s meeting was public transportation.
Carroll said that when that term is used, most people in the state think about Philadelphia or, perhaps, Pittsburgh. They imagine subways and commuter railways shuttling people through busy, densely populated urban areas.
But, he explained, every county in the commonwealth has a public transportation system and they are all in need of additional funding. And the Shapiro administration tried to start providing some of it in this year’s budget.
Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed a $280 million funding increase for public transportation statewide, but the final budget approved in July only provided an additional $80 million.
Carroll said the administration has a plan to address that $200 million shortfall that would not require a single penny of additional tax. He said the general fund has the capacity to provide the funding.
Bryan Barbin, deputy secretary of taxation at the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, outlined the governor’s proposal.
It hinges on increasing the amount public transit agencies receive from the state’s sales taxes. Last fiscal year that amount was around $1.2 billion, but by upping their cut by 1.75 percentage points that would increase to around $1.5 billion.
If the plan would have been put in place as part of the new budget, Barbin said, the South Central Transit Authority, which oversees Berks Area Regional Transportation Authority (BARTA), would have received an additional $5.6 million.
The mechanics of the governor’s proposal hinges on the introduction of a transfer increase from sales tax revenues to the Public Transportation Trust Fund that was created by Act 44 of 2007. Through various streams of revenue the fund distributes grants to public transit agencies to assist with operating costs, capital asset improvements and programs of statewide significance.
Barbin said the projected growth of sales tax would be sufficient to cover the 1.75 percentage point increase.
And, Carroll said, the investment would be well worth it.
“The economy of Pennsylvania is driven in so many ways by the economic activity in Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Bucks, Lehigh and Berks counties,” Carroll said. “Those counties are really important when it comes to economic activity and that activity is dependent upon a functioning, capable, growing transit system.”
Carroll said he will continue to lobby the Legislature to take action on upping public transportation funding before the Nov. 30 end of session.
A Berks perspective
Greg Downing, executive director of the South Central Transit Authority, said there is an urgent need for additional investment from the state for public transit.
The public transportation service operates in both Berks and Lancaster counties, offering fixed-route bus service and shared ride, paratransit service. The authority has 19 bus lines in Reading, transporting close to 75% of people who live in Reading.
“We had close to 4 million trips last year — 2.5 million in just Berks,” Downing said. “Of those trips, 350,000 were special services like shared ride and paratransit services.”
Downing said one of the challenges facing the authority is an ongoing worker shortage problem. He said that during COVID they started their own program to help recruit and train drivers. The program offers free training for those who have a clean driving record and are able to show sufficient map reading skills.
“That program required us to spend money so that we could continue to provide the community with the crucial services they needed to get to work, to get to appointments, to get to school,” he said.
Downing reported that BARTA is now operating at full capacity due to the success of the training program. However, he said there is still a hiring challenge in Lancaster County.
Aside from workforce issues, Downing said, the authority is also wrestling with how to provide the best, most efficient services possible.
He said that within the last six months the authority completed a transit development study to pinpoint how the system was working and what areas needed to be improved. He said the study revealed that the system could expand in Birdsboro and Kutztown.
“In order to meet those needs we need more funding,” he said. “The need to be able to provide these services, to provide that access is great.”
Downing said traffic is also a big issue facing the systems right now. Something that could help alleviate that stress by getting more vehicles off the road would be the possibility of restoring passenger rail service between Reading and Philadelphia.
The committee also got an update on that venture.
Dave Hunter, executive director of the Berks County Planning Commission who also serves on the Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority, said the effort to bring passenger rail service back to the county has been a collective undertaking with a momentum that has never been seen before.
He said this attempt to restore service is different from previous attempts, mostly due to the cooperation between the three counties where the service would pass through.
In July 2022, Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties formed the authority to establish the groundwork for the proposed plan to restore passenger rail service. The line would include stops in Reading, Pottstown and Phoenixville.
But, he said, the real work began when the authority was accepted into a federal program designed to create new rail corridors by providing the critical financial boost needed to pull off the effort.
Thomas Frawley, executive director of the Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority, provided the committee with an overview of the project’s status.
The authority received $500,000 through the federal program for the first phase of the endeavor. That first step includes developing the scope and costs of completing a service plan that will examine ridership and revenue forecasts, capital programming and an operational analysis.
It also allowed the authority to begin negotiations with Amtrak and Norfolk Southern about using their existing tracks.
Frawley said this first phase will be complete in the coming weeks.
Once the plan is complete, the next step will be moving onto the preliminary engineering phase.
That phase will show the authority whether the project is feasible. If it is, it will move to the implementation phase, which includes final design and starting the service.
Frawley cautioned that the process will be a long one and that it will likely take about five years to get the service running.
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