The Rail Users’ Network held its spring conference Friday, May 16, 2025: “Mixed Bag: New Transit Starts and Fiscal Cliff Service Cuts: What to Expect in 2025”.
As the title explains, 2025 is a year of bad and good news for transit around the United States. As usual, RUN put together a good conference. After introductions by Richard Rudolph, Phillip Eng gave the keynote address, followed by Art Guzzetti of APTA. Four speakers from the Fiscal Cliff Panel, moderated by Andrew Albert. Four speakers from the New Starts presentations. David Peter Alan made closing thoughts.
MBTA General Manger & CEO Philip Eng said that MBTA is currently at 60% state of good repair, aimed to be at 75% by end of 2025. The signal upgrades progress on Orange line 60%, Red line 70%.
Track repair metrics (December 2024): Speed Restrictions 19%, Travel Time Improvements 11%, Tie Replacement 20%, Rail Replacement 79%, Tamping 48%
APTA Vice-president Art Guzzetti said that APTA conference had 800 attendees. APTA will put out its 2024 fact book. He stated that advocates must try to be optimistic because the public wants more transit. APTA has been around since 1882, during rise of highways and decline of cities.
Fiscal Cliff Panel: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Bay Area
Juliette Michaelson (MTA Deputy Chief, Policy & External Relations) spoke on the success of congestion pricing. Traffic in the congestion pricing zone is less; buses move faster. The funds will be used for MTA improvements. She said that in summer 2017, there were fires and derailments; some people pinned the problems of MTA on then-governor Andrew Cuomo; traffic speeds were worse due to ride-share drivers.
Kevin Bueso (CFO at Regional Transportation Authority*), said that the Chicago-area transit agency is at fiscal cliff: 20% annual budget gap with 40% cut to service frequency.
Solutions presented to the Illinois state legislation:
Full funding for ADA Paratransit and Mandated Free and Reduced Fares (~$400M)
Increase state match RTA sales tax from 30% to 40% (~$100M)
Eliminate 1.5% state surcharge on RTA sales tax collection (~$20M)
Additional funding sources to reach $1.5B total increase annually
Farebox recovery ratio reduced from 50% to 20%
*CTA, METRA, PACE are under RTA
Before Erik Johanson started his presentation, moderator Andrew Albert said the words “horror stories of SEPTA”. We then learned about the most drastic service cuts to a major city that may come in January 2026.
Erik Johanson (Senior Director of Budgets & Transformation at SEPTA) said that we do not have a “fiscal cliff”, but “funding crisis”. 41% of Pennsylvania’s economic activity is in the five SEPTA counties. SEPTA farebox recovery pre-covid was 36%, one of the highest in U.S. Farebox recovery is 21% now. SEPTA’s budget gap is projected to be $242M. September 1st, SEPTA’s fares will be among the highest in the country.
At 27 transit agencies, the Bay Area’s transit situation is complicated, including fiscally. Sam Sargent (formerly Director of Strategy & Policy Caltrain, now at VTA) gave the presentation. The projected total budget short fall for the Bay Area for Fiscal Year 2027-28 is $2.693B. A chart on nine of the agencies shows that their revenue sources are highly varied. The chief revenue streams are farebox recovery, sales tax, or bridge tolls; e.g. Caltrain 69% from farebox recovery; VTA 70% from sales taxes.
The recovery for rail services to pre-COVID numbers has been uneven; e.g. SMART 162%, BART 45%. Moreover, 52.7% of workers in San Francisco have returned office regularly, compared to 72.2% U.S. overall. BART is looking at service cuts. Under a drastic situation, service stops at 9PM; headways are 60min; 500 trains dispatched every week on 3 lines, 41 stations.
New Starts Panel: New Carrollton-Betheseda, Southeastern Massachusetts, Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte
Ray Biggs (Senior Project Director Maryland DOT) spoke on the Purple Line, a tangential light rail line that will connect to 4 D.C. Metro stations and 3 MARC stations. Complete track installation 2026; service starts in 2027.
Project Details: 16 miles; 21 stations; headways at 7.5 minutes peak period, 10-12 minutes off peak; travel time 63 minutes; 28 LR vehicles by CAF
Jean Fox (Director of Outreach MBTA South Coast Rail) spoke on the Fall River/New Bedford Line, a newly restored passenger service.
Located south of Middleborough MA (purple line), the terminals are Fall River and New Bedford. Since this project utilized existing rail lines, environmental impacts and permitting requirements were reduced. One example, SCR and MassDEP created a soil management plan, which reused 93% of excavated soil.
Brief history:
1958 Service ends
1980s thru 2007, steps taken to restore service
2008-2009 MassDOT purchase from CSX 30 miles of track
2009-2019 Funding secured; reports and plans, economic/environmental; early work on ROW
2019-2024 Construction on lines and stations
2025 Service begins
Dee Leggett (Executive VP/Chief Development Officer DART) spoke on the Silver Line Regional Rail Project, rail infrastructure improvements to area freight service, and bridges and overpasses. The first section of the line is existing TexRail stations Terminal B and DFW North. From DFW airport, the Silver line goes east towards Plano on an existing right-of-way, known as the CottonBelt. It terminates at Shiloh Road station in Plano. Along the route, there will be connections to other DART rail lines.
Brian Nadolny (Senior Project Manager CART) spoke about the Red Line, a new commuter rail project in the Charlotte Area. Still in design phase, it will run north-south from Mount Mourne to downtown Charlotte. The terminus is Charlotte Gateway Station, the city’s new intermodal transit station which will include Amtrak, light rail, and bus. This project has been in the works for years. Then, in 2024, the city of Charlotte purchased the right-of-way, the former “O” line, from Norfolk Southern. ROW upgrades are needed and a decision on rolling stock has not yet been made.
Journalist and long-time advocate David Peter Alan made closing thoughts from “the train-less state of New Jersey”. (The conference took place during BLET’s work stoppage.) He pointed out that commuting patterns have changed and more off-peak service is needed. The fiscal cliffs are upon us and we need to fight. One argument is the making the business case. The threat of major curtailment of mobility is looming.
24 August 2025: 32 bus routes eliminated; 16 bus routes shorted; Service cuts on 88 bus, metro, regional rail lines; End of all special service
1 September 2025: 21.5% fare increase; complete hiring freeze; base fare increased to $2.90.
1 January 2026: 18 additional bus routes eliminated; 5 Regional rail lines eliminated; 20% reduction in service on all remaining routes; 9 p.m. curfew on metro and regional rail; Special service eliminated; Broad-Ridge Spur eliminated; Total of 66 Stations closed
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