HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A last-ditch effort to prevent half of all public transit services from being eliminated in the Philadelphia region passed Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives on Monday, as a roughly $1 billion Democratic-backed funding plan advanced toward an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled state Senate.

The bill — which includes funding for highways, too — increases aid for transit agency operations by $292 million, or about 25% more, with the lion’s share of the money going to the Philadelphia-based Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

SEPTA has said it cannot keep waiting for more aid and must start making cuts in the coming days, which it says will be more drastic than any undertaken by a major transit agency in the United States.

The nation

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