Students walking past the Dragon Statue this summer may have noticed a temporary change: the 33rd Street SEPTA Trolley station, centered on Drexel University’s campus, is currently closed. As part of SEPTA’s annual Trolley Tunnel Blitz, service through the Center City tunnel will be suspended until 6 a.m. on Aug. 11, affecting trolley routes T1 through T5.
The closure, which began on Jul. 11, allows SEPTA crews to complete essential maintenance during the month-long timeframe. Planned upgrades include replacing worn track, re-tensioning overhead wires, cleaning and repairing drainage systems and modernizing infrastructure in preparation for a broader overhaul of the trolley system. This trolley modernization initiative aims to enhance the network’s speed, accessibility and reliability.
To maintain access to Center City, riders are directed to transfer from trolleys at 40th and Market Streets to the Market-Frankford Line or take buses 21 and 42. Still, the detour has increased commute times and created additional inconvenience for many.
While the tunnel closure is temporary, Drexel students and other riders face a far more concerning disruption that may be implemented very soon. Beginning Aug. 24, just a day before the School District of Philadelphia school year begins, SEPTA is preparing to eliminate 38 bus routes, and that is only the beginning of the transit system’s service cuts due to a $213 million structural budget deficit.
The cuts could eventually impact nearly half of SEPTA’s current services. Affected routes include 50 eliminated bus lines, five regional rail lines, one metro line and significant reductions in service frequency. Routes that remain could see a 20 percent drop in service and may experience complete shutdowns after 9 p.m.
Among the routes scheduled for elimination is the Route 31 bus, which Maria Mixon, a 21-year-old Drexel student, depends on to reach her legal internship. She checks the SEPTA site almost every other day to see if they have set a stop date. “Sometimes I’ll be walking to the bus and they drive past me, or sometimes I’ll walk there and I’ll be there for who knows?” she told the Inquirer.
Mixon, who owns a car, said she still chooses SEPTA to avoid the high cost of parking. However, the service’s growing unreliability has made that decision more questionable.
SEPTA officials warn that unless the Pennsylvania legislature acts quickly to establish a long-term funding solution, these cuts will take effect in phases, beginning late August and continuing through January 2026.
“There is nothing left to cut from the budget but service,” the agency wrote in a public statement.
To reduce expenses, SEPTA has already implemented hiring freezes and administrative cuts, but these measures have only slightly narrowed the deficit. The agency is now at a breaking point.
According to Andrew Busch, SEPTA’s communications director, over 55,000 students who rely on SEPTA to get to school will be affected. “It’s going to be much more difficult to get those kids to school,” said Busch. “Students and parents will probably need to prepare for… more transfers than they normally do and certainly allowing for time to get to and from school.”
Even if state funding is secured at the last minute, Busch warned it may be too late to stop the cuts. “We need about two or three weeks to either make a decision to go or not go with these cuts,” he said. “If we got into the 20th [of August] and funding hadn’t been approved, then we’d already be too late.”
Concerned students and riders have taken to social media to express their frustration and fear. “The line I take to 30th [Street] Station, the Trenton line, would be shut down by next year,” wrote one Drexel student on Reddit. “Sure, I could take the West Trenton line, but… the influx of people doing the same thing, AND the fact I’ve heard it shuts down a lot, makes me pretty scared.”
Traffic projections produced by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Agency have suggested that the impacts of increased traffic would be crippling, comparing it to the entire population of Pittsburgh being added to the region’s roads.
In preparation for the cuts, SEPTA has installed warning signs across the region, listing soon-to-be-eliminated stops and routes. And while the agency says it has tried to prioritize equity and minimize disruption to low-income and minority communities, many riders are left preparing for the worst: reduced access to work, school and essential services.
Back on Drexel’s campus, trolleys are expected to return to the 33rd Street station by mid-August. However, for many students – and for the nearly four million people who use SEPTA for their daily commute – the question of whether it will remain a reliable mode of transportation for much longer continues to linger.