Well, between those path train fires in North Jersey to looming service cuts for SEPTA transit riders in the South, there's no shortage of challenges lately for commuters just trying to get to work.

SEPTA, which handles southeastern PA's train and bus system, including for Philly, is facing a massive budget deficit.

Now, unless the state kicks in money to help, SEPTA is looking at eliminating all service in and out of Trenton, leaving a lot of Jersey commuters stuck.

Ted Goldberg caught up with riders who will have to rethink how they get to work.

Trenton's commuters are less than three weeks from upheaval, as a budget battle in Pennsylvania could lead to fewer trains and buses, along with more expensive rides to Philadelphia.

I hope that it doesn't happen, you know, and I hope that it all works out.

Without additional state funding, SEPTA, which manages Philly's trains and buses, says it faces a deficit of more than $200 million for the next fiscal year.

You have to cut pretty far before you start seeing any savings, so that's why we're going so deep.

Andrew Bush is a spokesperson for SEPTA.

He says SEPTA needs to take drastic steps to balance its budget, including raising fares by 20% across the board, implementing a 9 p.m. curfew on train service, reducing trains along the West Trenton line come August 24th, and eliminating the Trenton line entirely on January 1st.

The big impact is going to be on midday service that's running with headways of about two hours for both of those lines, and then the same thing for evenings and weekends.

So we've had to, unfortunately, kind of sacrifice that off-peak service to maintain some viable morning and evening rush hour services.

I take it every day, so I mean it'll add up over time, and yeah, I hope that they don't do that or they figure something else out.

The Trenton line is one of SEPTA's busier lines, but SEPTA says it spends $65 million a year to lease train lines from Amtrak, and cutting that line means major savings.

None of the lines are profitable in the sense that they're making money.

Like all public transit, it needs to be heavily subsidized because it's a public utility.

SEPTA's not unique in that regard.

SEPTA says ridership is almost back to pre-pandemic levels, but costs have gone up throughout the system.

We had issues related to homeless and vulnerable population on the system, so we invested in having social service specialists out to assist with that, but we've also had to add more police.

We've fortunately have been pretty successful in lowering the crime rate on the system, dropped by 33% last year.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro spoke about the funding fight at a separate event Friday, but wouldn't go into detail about negotiations.

I know how vital mass transit is to the economy of this entire commonwealth, and how vital SEPTA is for the vitality of these communities.

Finding that common ground, that's critically important.

It's taken longer than I would like, but I think we're going to get there.

We really hope that the Pennsylvania legislature comes together to fund SEPTA.

Trenton Mayor Reid Gashora is worried about how people in his city would handle commuting with the loss of an entire train line.

The alternative is buses, which will be even more congestion and added turmoil on the road.

So we really hope that they get it together, and there's a lot of commuters going into Philadelphia, and it's beneficial for both New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

If Pennsylvania doesn't fund SEPTA, commuters say they'll be left with no choice but to figure out new ways to get around.

Definitely have to get creative.

It maybe probably costs me more money, whether it be like Uber or trying to find someone to ride share with.

I just don't know what to do right now to sort of just get to work still in a timely manner, without having to majorly alter a lot of my schedule and life around it.

I would have to switch to Amtrak, which is incredibly expensive, or you have to plan ahead like crazy, and you're stuck to their times.

So it would be very much inconvenient for me.

While fewer trains would make life safer for animals near tracks, it would no doubt be a huge inconvenience for people throughout New Jersey trying to cross the Delaware.

In Trenton, I'm Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.

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