The most recent
capital budget lists four projects of significance, which include extending the Norristown High Speed Line to King of Prussia, Trolley Modernization, Rail Capacity Improvements and Comprehensive Bus Network Redesign. "Rail Capacity Improvements," thus far is no more specific than, " exploring options to enhance capacity on its Market-Frankford Line (MFL) and Regional Rail network," and a plea for money to buy replacements for the Silverliner IV cars. At least somebody also seems to want
to restore regional rail service to Coatesville.
There are interests in Phoenixville promoting some kind of regional rail service to their town, but SEPTA doesn't seem to be interested.
The current iteration of a proposed extension of the Broad Street Line to the Navy Yard is still listed as a, "long-range planning effort," in the FY 2020 - 2021 capital budget, but I suspect that it has been quietly killed. The website for the project seems to have vanished at some point since last year and there hasn't been much talk about it. When it was available, the feasibility study indicated that it would cost almost a billion dollars per mile for pretty pitiful ridership, which suggests that it was either a lousy project or that it was sandbagged, although it could also have been a lousy project that was sandbagged for good measure.
All, or maybe just most, has been quiet on the West Chester [regional rail extension] front. There was some enthusiastic talk
reported in 2018, but I don't think that much has happened since, at least not much in public.
SEPTA might well spend the next few years in a state of perpetual fiscal crisis. Severely diminished Pennsylvania Turnpike traffic has and possible will seriously impair its ability to issue debt, which is needs to make its $ 450 million transfer to the Public Transportation Trust fund, which is what the Commonwealth funds SEPTA's capital budget from. Whatever comes of that,
§ 1506(b) and § 1506(c) of Title 74 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes prescribes that those transfers will be mostly replaced by sales tax revenue from sales of vehicles, which means it will be paid general fund revenues, rather than being 'off the books' by paying from Pennsylvania Turnpike debt, so there's certain to be a fraught political fight over it.
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