On Tuesday, May 6, Bryn Mawr President Wendy Cadge, Provost Tim Harte, and students from Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges joined local politicians, community activists, labor leaders, and other area college and university representatives at a press conference to call on state lawmakers to fund public transportation and avoid service cuts. A number of Bryn Mawr students and staff attended the event to show their support for the effort.
The press conference was held at the Bryn Mawr train station in response to cuts the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) has warned would be necessary if the transit system’s funding crisis isn’t addressed. Among the cuts being discussed is the elimination of the regional rail line adjacent to campus that goes from Bryn Mawr and the rest of the Main Line to Center City, Philadelphia.
“Bryn Mawr College, which is just a couple of blocks that way, has numerous programs, career and volunteer opportunities, classes, and research projects throughout the Philadelphia region,” Cadge told the assembled media, students, and community members at the event. “Our college, like many others in this area, maintains strong partnerships with a wide range of organizations, and our community depends on SEPTA to keep those partnerships going.”
Bryn Mawr provides free transportation on SEPTA to students through the SEPTA Key Advantage UPass Program. According to Cadge, an average of 1,000 Bryn Mawr students use their SEPTA passes each month during the school year, building ties to the community that often lead them to stay in the region after graduation.
“Community engagement via public transit keeps college graduates in the Philadelphia area," Cadge said. "Students come from all over the country and the world to study here, and access to SEPTA enables them to create a deeper connection to the region and inspires them not to take their education, experience, and talents home with them when they graduate.”
Harte spoke as a longtime rider of the train, which he’s used since joining the College in 2002.
“Not only is it environmentally friendly, but the SEPTA train is also where I’ve so often gotten my best thinking and writing done,” he said, also noting that the train builds community in a way that sitting in a car and commuting can’t.
“Over the years I have gotten to know quite a few fellow commuters on SEPTA," Harte said, "and my son, who for a number of years came in with me to go to preschool and kindergarten at Bryn Mawr, became friends with all the conductors and a number of passengers, whom we still keep in touch with.”
Of all the speakers, it was Olivia Loudon ’25 whose impassioned remarks may have most caught the attention of the media. Loudon was featured in coverage by The Philadelphia Inquirer, KYW radio, and more.
“I'm not native to the Philly area, I was born in Columbus, Ohio—which, fun fact, is the largest city in the country without a system of rail transit,” she said at the event. “SEPTA has been absolutely life-changing for me. I've been able to take it to work, to visit family, school trips. It's part of the reason I chose Bryn Mawr and I'm not alone. Every weekend, the Bryn Mawr station has students all lined up on the platform. I'd wager every day there are students commuting in and out of the city, and that number only climbs when you include the four other nearby colleges.”
In conclusion, Loudon issued a call to action for everyone in the region.
“So I’m talking to my fellow Main Liners when I say it is time for you to get involved,” she said at the event. “This is not an issue to be solved by just putting out yard signs. It requires calls, emails, letters. It requires us to be so loud that they can hear us all the way to Harrisburg. We benefit so much from Philadelphia, its people, and its public transit system, the very least we can do is help defend it.”
Tuesday’s press conference was organized by Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija.
SEPTA announced in April that Bryn Mawr’s regional rail line would be eliminated in January 2026 unless state legislators take action.
“So I’m talking to my fellow Main Liners when I say it is time for you to get involved. This is not an issue to be solved by just putting out yard signs. It requires calls, emails, letters. It requires us to be so loud that they can hear us all the way to Harrisburg."