PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — SEPTA says there will be a delay in the planned debut of its newly designed bus routes as it holds community meetings at the request of City Council to explain the changes.
The effort to remap bus routes to make them more efficient has been in the works for years.
SEPTA board was originally expected to vote on the Bus Revolution plan in December. It was tabled at the January meeting, and a special meeting to consider the plan last week was canceled, as City Council Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson asked for more time and more meetings to hear about the impact on Black and brown communities.
Those meetings are expected to take place over the next month or so. As a result, SEPTA says the planned launch of the new routes this fall will be delayed into next year.
"That's going to be put on hold for now," said Andrew Busch, SEPTA's director of media relations. "We're working very closely with City Council to set up some additional public meetings. We're working on the scheduling for those right now."
Bus drivers would have to select their routes by seniority, and a public education campaign would need to be held before the new routes could launch, Busch said.
Bus Revolution would keep the same number of buses but increase frequency by reducing the number of routes from 125 to 106.
But the changes could mean some riders would have to transfer to the Market-Frankford Line to get where their bus currently takes them. Busch says after addressing community concerns, SEPTA hopes to present the plan to the board in "a few months." If approved, he says the new routes could begin in early 2025.