Uncertainty and anxiety as SEPTA slashes bus routes and hikes fares

Donna Allie’s 700-plus employees work throughout Philadelphia, at all hours of the day and night. They clean City Hall and the Municipal Services Building, public schools and charter schools, and all kinds of office buildings.

They earn low wages to vacuum and empty wastebaskets after dark, when they won’t disturb their clients. They live modestly, tend not to own cars or take pricey Uber rides, and overwhelmingly depend on SEPTA — with perhaps 95% taking buses and trains to their job sites, said Allie, the owner of Team Clean, a maintenance company based at the Navy Yard.

Now, as the transit authority deals with a financial crisis and a state budget impasse, it’s getting ready to eliminate more than 30 bus routes on Monday, reduce frequency on many others, and impose steep fare hikes