SEPTA Can't Fund Chestnut Hill Bus Route

SEPTA held a public hearing on Thursday afternoon to discuss the possible discontinuation of bus route #134, which runs from Chestnut Hill to the .

Montgomery County has subsidized the route since 1994, but the county’s 2012 operating budget has discontinued the subsidy and SEPTA does not have enough funds to continue operating the route, SEPTA representative John Calnan said.

Calnan added that there have “been no successful attempts” to get money from the county to continue the route, and SEPTA did try working with the county to make the route work in their budget.

Calnan said 67 of the trips on the 134 can be merged with other bus lines, while 49 trips would be lost.

A number of residents and representatives from area businesses spoke in support of keeping the bus route.

Russell Budka, a manager for Xerox Corporation, said eight of his employees take the 134 bus and would have no other means of transportation to get to work.

“I’m a little bit concerned that the area is growing and the people who ride the bus” are being left out, said Budka.

Michael Reagan of Ambler said he moved to his home on Redstone Lane because of the proximity to public transportation and specifically the 134 bus for his disabled son. He told Hearing Examiner Joseph O’Malley and Calnan that his son takes the 134 bus to his job in Flourtown. The stop for the bus is within walking distance of Reagan’s home.

Joanne Palmer, an employment coordinator at Adecco in Horsham, said a number of their clients rely on the 134 bus to get them to their positions, and without the route would lose their jobs.

Mary Whitman, a senior director at Johnson and Johnson in Lower Gwynedd, said she rides the 134 bus and without that bus line, she and other employees at both Johnson and Johnson and Dow would lose transportation to work.

She added that the Radnor office of Johnson and Johnson is being merged with the Lower Gwynedd office, and that their orientation information includes the 134 bus line because it runs from the city suburbs to Lower Gwynedd office. She urged SEPTA to seriously increasing service on the route rather than discontinuing it.

“I think you’re going backwards, not forwards,” said Whitman.

O’Malley will take the testimony from residents and riders from the hearing back to SEPTA and write a recommendation. The SEPTA Board will make a final decision on bus line 134 at their meeting on April 26. If the Board decides to discontinue the route, the earliest riders would be affected is June 15, said Calnan. Riders would see a notice of discontinuance by the first week of May.

Allan Lamkin, a rider of the 134 line, asked for notices to be more visible and accessible to riders. He said he has been riding the 134 bus since 2007 and wouldn’t have known about the hearing if a bus driver hadn’t mentioned it.

O’Malley said notices were placed on SEPTA’s website, at the Chestnut Hill stop and made available on a website for the blind.