How to Pay for SEPTA? For Starters, Toll the Schuylkill

This midday photo of the Schuylkill Expressway at Conshohocken shows free-flowing traffic, but for much of the day and even on weekends, congestion is the norm. By taking a page from New York City’s playbook, we can make that congestion go away. / Photograph by Krimpet via Wikimedia Commons, used under CC-BY-SA-3.0

Thank God for federalism. Because of it, we have a relatively easy way to raise money to run SEPTA at our fingertips.

While Donald Trump, the president who would be king, issued an edict that New York City’s congestion pricing end on March 21st, New York state has ignored his order — and with good reason. (Trump’s Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, argues that the program can be terminated under the federal law that made it possible. But some observers disagree.)

The congestion pricing setup, which was authorized under state law, charges all cars entering Manhattan below 60th Street a $9 toll during the day and $2.25 at night. (This MTA webpage gives the details about which vehicles pay how much and when.)

The program has been a spectacular success. In its first month of operation, one million fewer cars drove into southern Manhattan, according to the MTA. Travel times on the bridges and tunnels connecting Manhattan with Long Island and New Jersey have also fallen by anywhere from 10 to 30 percent at the morning peak (48 percent on the Holland Tunnel) and by as much as 60 percent at the afternoon peak. Express bus runs from the outer boroughs take 10 fewer minutes, and bus service in general has become more reliable.

Moreover, Sam Deutsch of the Boston Consulting Group points out that many of those motorists are taking public transportation instead. Bus ridership has risen the most thanks to those freer-flowing streets, and the jump in subway ridership has made the subways safer thanks to more “eyes on the train.”

And those car and truck tolls raised $38 million in revenue in the first month alone — money the MTA intends to spend on fixing the subways.

All this suggests that a big piece of the SEPTA funding puzzle lies within our grasp already:

Just toll the Schuylkill Expressway.

Toll revenue from the Schuylkill Expressway could help pay for the added Regional Rail service the former drivers will want to use to get to and from Center City. / Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons

Outdated and congested from the day it was completed in 1959, the busiest highway in Pennsylvania carries upwards of 103,000 vehicles a day on average through Montgomery County and 163,000 through Philadelphia. Those traffic volumes cause it to flow like molasses much of the time and all but seize up at peak travel times.

And many of those using it to reach Center City jobs could use one of two SEPTA Regional Rail lines that more or less parallel it.

Adding a “congestion charge” to the Schuylkill might not be as successful as New York’s has been because of the existence of alternate routes into the city. But do you really think the people who don’t want to crawl down Ridge Pike or upset Gladwynites by clogging Conshohocken State Road now will gladly do so after the freeway is tolled?

Especially when there’s a reasonably fast and comfortable train nearby. And the money raised from the tolls would help pay for the additional service needed to handle the added demand.

Locals made fun of this idea when it was floated nearly 20 years ago. But toll collection technology has improved to the point where booths won’t be necessary. Overhead gantries will read E-ZPass transponders or snap photos of license plates and bill the motorists. Furthermore, anyone just passing through will have their tolls canceled when they pass through the gantries on the way out of the city.

Sure, the Trump administration is likely to raise the same objections to this idea that it has to the one in New York, and since federal funds have been used to improve the road’s safety features, it has a way to try to stop it. But New York is confident that the Trumpists’ arguments will prove as weak as so many others’ have.

Besides, given how long it takes for good ideas to become reality hereabouts, odds are Trump won’t be around to object to them once the tolls take effect.

We’ve been looking for low-hanging fruit to pluck for money to fund SEPTA, and the rest of the state complains that we’re milking it for our own needs — an argument I don’t want to take on right now. Schuylkill Expressway tolls take care of both issues. It’s time we imitated New York, even though we hate doing that, and solve two problems at the same time.