Due to ridership recovery and a budget crunch, SEPTA will start charging commuters for parking at its 146 stations once again, writes Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza for WHYY.

The transportation system made the roughly 25,000 parking spots across its network free to use for commuters in March 2020, when the pandemic started and ridership fell dramatically.

Four and a half years later, much of its ridership has returned. With SEPTA also facing a tight budget, free parking will not last much longer.

SEPTA proposed in its budget to reinstate parking fees of $1 per day for lots, as well as $2 per day for garages. Those fees could later be potentially doubled to $2 and $4, respectively.

SEPTA collected $4.7 million from its parking operations in 2019. While that is just a small part of its overall revenues collected — which included $517.9 million in passenger fares that year — every dollar counts.

“The reality is we’re in a budget crunch and we’re looking at all ways that we can to increase our revenues,” said Andrew Busch, a SEPTA spokesperson. “It’s still far less expensive than you would spend to park in Center City.”

Read more about SEPTA and the reinstatement of commuter parking spot fees in WHYY.

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