Amidst recent crimes on public transportation, riders are more skeptical about riding. SEPTA announced this week their plans to make the trains, buses, trolleys and stations safer and cleaner. NBC10’s Karen Hua reports.
Under its newly released security plan, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority will seek to improve rider safety while addressing “vulnerable” people who use its facilities for shelter.
The agency identified an increased number of people experiencing homelessness as a major area of concern, noting that many vulnerable people seeking shelter on SEPTA facilities are also dealing with mental health issues and drug addiction, at times making riders and workers feel unsafe and causing service delays.
“Members of the vulnerable population use SEPTA stations and shelters as a place to take illegal drugs, find safety, and stay out of the elements, eat meals, and use transit facilities for activities of daily living which damages to SEPTA facilities and, occasionally, disturbs interactions with customers,” the report, titled “Leading the Way: SEPTA’s Coordinated Response to Safety and Security,” found.
The Market-Frankford elevated train line is of particular concern, with SEPTA saying the number of vulnerable people on the train has increased “exponentially” since 2020. Fifty-four percent of reported customer concerns came from the 13th and 15th Street stations in Center City, SEPTA noted.
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As part of ongoing efforts to increase safety, SEPTA said it has increased the number of uniformed police officers aboard trains, increased undercover surveillance at certain stations to reduce illegal drug transactions and deploying outreach specialists tasked with connecting vulnerable people to social services.
To address cleanliness issues, the agency will allocate $14.8 million for maintenance custodians in its budget for the fiscal year 2023 – nearly triple the amount that SEPTA said it spent last year. It will also increase the number of deep cleaning campaigns with weekend shutdowns of the Market-Frankford and Broad Street lines, allowing for higher sanitization of those lines.
To address homelessness, SEPTA wants to increase its number of outreach specialists from seven to more than 50 so that they can connect more people to social services. It also wants to expand its co-responder program, whereby behavioral health providers team up with police officers to respond to and de-escalate situations involving people with mental health issues.
Transportation and Transit
However, SEPTA noted that it will need the help of elected leaders to address root causes of homelessness, and it called on them to increase the number of shelter beds and support “low barrier housing options” across Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties.
“In the end, it is only through coordinated, communitywide action that we will be able to connect people to services like housing and mental health care to end homelessness on our system,” SEPTA Chairman Pasquale Deon and SEPTA CEO and General Manager Leslie Richards wrote.
To read SEPTA’s full safety and security plan, click here.
