SEPTA officially halts pending service cuts, fare increases after court order

After telling commuters to wait to purchase passes, on Sunday, SEPTA officials provided new details on how the mass transit provider is reacting to a recent court ruling that ordered the mass transit provider to halt planned service cuts and fare increases.

On Sunday, SEPTA officials said that, per a recent ruling from a Common Pleas Court, the mass transit provider would halt any additional service cuts and fare increases that weren’t already in place.

While noting that SEPTA still faces a $213 million budget gap, and that the “future of a proposed state funding solution that would help close the deficit remains uncertain,” officials with SEPTA said that they would halt future cuts and leave services in place as they were on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025.

That means, the 21.5% fare increase that was planned to go into effect on Monday has been put on hold. All fares, officials said, would remain at their current prices and customers could continue to purchase weekly and monthly passes for September at pre-fare increase prices.

Though, officials have said, those who purchased passes before the increases were halted, may not get refunded for the difference.

“I don’t have an answer yet on whether there will be refunds,” SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch told NBC10 recently.

Also, cuts to about 20% of Regional Rail services that were planned to be implemented on Sept. 2, 2025, have been halted as well.

However, SEPTA officials said, in a statement, that the 20% service cuts, in place since Aug. 24, 2025, would remain in place.

Though, on Sept. 2, 2025, SEPTA will be supplementing bus services for school students thanks to an agreement with the City of Philadelphia.

SEPTA officials said the additional service cuts and fare increases will remain on hold until further notice.

The judge in the case that led to the halt of the pending service cuts and fare increases has asked both sides to come back to the courtroom on Thursday, Sept. 4.

For more information on these changes or for updates from SEPTA, click here.