Delaware SEPTA riders predict ‘misery’ for commuters if rail line stops rolling

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Delaware resident Kyle Rice took a job last year at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, one key deciding factor was the SEPTA train service.

The commuter train from Philadelphia runs almost hourly and has four stops in Delaware: Claymont, Wilmington, Stanton and Newark. Every day about 1,300 people board SEPTA trains in Delaware for work, school or play.

“It was a huge portion of accepting the role, that the commute was easy on the train and affordable,’’ said Rice, an emergency medical services educator. The hospital pays most of the cost, leaving Rice with a commute that costs him $40 a month.

So five days a week, Rice drives from his New Castle home to the sparkling new train station in Claymont. He gets work done on the 40-minute train trip to Philly, then walks the few blocks to CHOP or takes a free SEPTA shuttle to the hospital.

But now his convenient and cost-effective commute is in jeopardy. Unless state lawmakers can agree on a huge cash infusion for financially troubled SEPTA, the regional rail service between Philadelphia and Delaware will be cut back within days, and eliminated by January.

Without the option of riding the SEPTA train, Rice will drive and spend so much more.

“My expense will go to well over $500 a month when I account for fuel and parking by itself,’’ Rice told WHYY News last week while waiting for the train home from the Penn Medicine stop.

“That doesn’t include enhanced maintenance and wear and tear and all that stuff,’’ Rice said. “The burden it’ll put is huge because the traffic is going to be massive. I’ll have to leave much earlier than I do now, much more exposure to the elements because I have to go further to get to the shuttle, to get off the shuttle, to walk, so there’s more misery attuned to that.”

Cindy Showalter of Newark shares Rice’s concern. She commutes from Delaware to Philly three days a week for her job at an agricultural chemicals company. Her company picks up the tab for her SEPTA pass.

Should SEPTA drop the Delaware line, Showalter has been examining her options.

She’s considered taking Amtrak out of Wilmington, but said that with daily parking included, it could cost up to $900 a month.

If she drives, the parking garage near her office costs $25 a day. That’s $300 a month, plus gas.

Showalter would probably use her car, but worries for her fellow SEPTA users and the city of Philadelphia.

“People I’m on the train with are very worried,’’ she said. “This is how we’ve been getting to work for years. I’ve been doing this for eight years. Before COVID, I was doing it five days a week.”

Her message to Pennsylvania lawmakers and SEPTA leaders?

“The transit into Delaware is absolutely needed,’’ she said. “It’s possible people are going to change jobs. The city is going to lose talent. People are going to miss seeing relatives. They’re going to not be able to get to school. There’s college kids that go up there. There’s doctors and nurses that go into the University of Pennsylvania area.”

No talks are currently being held in Harrisburg, however, after lawmakers failed to agree on a funding fix last week.

And this week, SEPTA is flooding stations with employees in yellow vests to help guide riders with questions about the pending cuts.

Despite his trepidation, Rice is counting on the powers that be in Pennsylvania to figure out a solution.

“Long term there’s no way they don’t fix this, not with football season starting now, with October baseball coming up,’’ Rice said. “Zero chance that they don’t have that resolved by then because there’s no way that they can lose that revenue.”