Should We Let Public Transit Die?
Urban-rural hostility is fueling a public transportation crisis in US cities. But demands to abandon bus and train riders ignore the economic and social costs of cutting service.
SEPTA bus riders in Philadelphia in August. The transit system faces a severe funding crisis.
Photographer: Ryan Collerd/BloombergBy the end of 2026, if things go on as they are, many US cities will have lost large parts of their public transit systems. Philadelphia is on track to lose almost half its transit service in the next year. The Chicago area could lose over a third. The Portland, Oregon, area could eventually lose a quarter of its bus service and a tenth of its rail service.
Those are just some of the cuts we can see now, in debates in those states’ legislatures. Next year, voters in several states will probably be asked to raise new funding to save their transit systems, forestalling what could otherwise be serious cuts in many cities.