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---SNIP--- Every day, SEPTA employees see criminal acts, fare evasion, people experiencing mental illness, homelessness, or drug addiction. The union I lead, Transport Workers Union Local 234, which represents 5,000 SEPTA workers, has been sounding the alarm that unless conditions improve, the very survival of the public transit system is at stake. In response, we have been asked by image-conscious SEPTA managers and other public officials to tone things down and not draw too much attention to the transit agency’s challenges.

Cities coast-to-coast grappling with broken-down e-buses that cannot be fixed .. Between the federal government, states and municipalities, untold billions in taxpayer dollars have been spent adding electric buses to transit fleets across the U.S. in an effort to reduce carbon emissions. However, cities from coast-to-coast are grappling with broken-down e-buses that cannot be fixed, are too expensive to fix, or they have scrapped their electric fleets altogether. Officials in Asheville, North Carolina, recently expressed frustration that three of the five e-buses the city purchased for millions in 2018 are now sitting idle due to a combination of software issues,...

A man has been charged with fighting another man who fell onto the tracks at a University City SEPTA station moments before being struck and killed by a train. Chaz Wearing, 40, is charged with involuntary manslaughter, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office announced Friday. Wearing, who investigators believe is homeless, is currently on bench warrant status for an unrelated strangulation case in Delaware County, investigators said. Wearing's criminal history also includes cases in Clinton and Lycoming counties, according to the District Attorney's Office. New video sent to NBC10 by a law enforcement source shows Wearing arguing with a 38-year-old man....

A bus driver was shot to death along his route in the Germantown area of Philadelphia Thursday morning and a suspect is now in custody, police said. The 48-year-old driver was transporting passengers on the number 23 bus of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA, when a woman opened fire at around 10:30 a.m., police said after releasing images of the female suspect.

Two girls were reportedly raped on back-to-back days while on their way to school in Philadelphia. The first victim, 15, was raped Thursday morning after she got off a SEPTA train at the 8th Street stop, according to Fox 29. The second victim, 13, was raped Friday after she got off at the SEPTA train station at Broad and Race streets, ... The suspect from the first incident allegedly tried to speak with the teenager while they were both on the subway train, Fox 29 reported. When the girl exited the train, the suspect followed her and tried unsuccessfully to...

Several teen girls who were caught on video attacking a group of Asian students on a SEPTA train in Philadelphia have now been charged with ethnic intimidation and other offenses. On Thursday, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office approved aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation, criminal conspiracy, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and disorderly conduct against the four suspects, who are all under the age of 17. One of the suspects was also charged with an additional count of robbery for trying to steal air pods from one of the victims, the District Attorney's Office said.

An investigation is underway after several teen girls were captured on video attacking a group of students on a SEPTA train in Philadelphia. The incident occurred on a Broad Street Line train near SEPTA's Erie Station around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. Video of the attack shows a group of teen girls repeatedly punching and screaming at another group of teens on the train. One of the attackers also punches, knocks over and repeatedly kicks a teen girl before slapping her with her shoe. NBC10 is not showing the video out of respect for the victims. The attackers in the video are...

EXCLUSIVE: The man who allegedly raped a woman in front of passengers on a Philadelphia area-train already has a criminal record and had overstayed his student visa – but was protected from deportation by the immigration system. Tucker Carlson Tonight has confirmed that Fiston Ngoy, who was arrested last week for allegedly raping the woman in a brutal attack on a SEPTA train in front of other passengers, came to the U.S. legally in 2012 on a student visa.... He was put in immigration detention in Jan. 2018. However, he was never deported because he received a "withholding of removal"...

UPPER DARBY, Pa. (AP) — A woman was raped by a stranger on a commuter train in suburban Philadelphia in the presence of other riders who a police official said “should have done something.” Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt of the Upper Darby Police Department said officers were called to the 69th Street terminal around 10 p.m. Wednesday after the assault on the westbound train. SEPTA police waiting at the next stop found the woman and arrested a man. The woman was taken to a hospital. The entire episode was captured on surveillance video that showed other people on the train at...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is one of the deep-blue cities that’s been priding itself in leading the charge against climate change for years now. Back in 2016, they decided to establish a position as an early adopter of electric vehicle technology on a large scale to reduce their carbon footprint. The city purchased 25 electric buses from a company called Protera at a staggering price tag of nearly one million dollars apiece and put them into operation. But barely four years later, every one of the buses had been pulled from service and is deemed unusable. What went so horribly wrong to...

SEPTA riders are candid about what they see on buses, subways and the Market-Frankford elevated line. And some of them say what they have seen has made them reluctant to ride right now — which is a huge problem for a transit agency that gets hundreds of thousands of people to work daily. “Dirty trash. I’ve seen empty needles,” said Charles Williams of West Philadelphia. “It was filth everywhere”, said Mona Scruggs of Northeast Philadelphia. “I had to buy a newspaper every day, just so I could sit on the newspaper, because I didn’t want to sit on the seat.”...

On a summer evening inside Suburban Station in 2019, a transit police officer’s gun went off. It was a Sig Sauer P320, a model that SEPTA police started using in 2016 but that had also given rise to reports of misfires and lawsuits claiming the weapon was defective. Officer Craig Jacklyn’s Sig Sauer P320 was in its holster. His hands were not on the weapon when it fired, he says, and authorities would later conclude the gun discharged through no fault of his own.

Seven people were shot in broad daylight near SEPTA’s Olney Transportation Station on Wednesday afternoon. Philadelphia Police say the shooting happened shortly before 3 p.m. at Broad Street and Olney Avenue. Six of the victims were taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center while the other was transported to Temple University Hospital by police. Their conditions are not known. A suspect was apprehended following a foot chase by police.

A man was forcibly removed from a Philadelphia public bus on Friday for not wearing a face mask, according to WHYY. A Philadelphia Police official told WYYY that the incident began when a bus driver told the man to “leave the bus several times and the passenger repeatedly refused.” Police reportedly received 911 calls about the disturbance on a bus near the city's downtown. Once the officers arrived they also “ordered the male to leave the bus several times. The male refused, at which point he was physically removed by the officers,” police said, according to WHYY.

SEPTA says it will no longer enforce a short-lived policy requiring riders to wear facial coverings after a widely shared video showing a man being dragged off a bus, allegedly for not wearing one, prompted confusion about whether masks were mandatory while riding public transit. The video shows several Philadelphia police officers forcibly removing the man, who is later heard saying he was taken off the bus for not wearing a mask.

A Philadelphia mail carrier was assaulted by a group of young males late Thursday as he waited for the subway during his commute home, officials said. The attack took place at 7:30 p.m. on the Broad Street Line platform at City Hall, according to Sgt. Eric Gripp, a Philadelphia police spokesperson. Charges were pending Saturday. Gripp said that the victim was cooperating with police and that the attackers could face aggravated-assault and robbery charges. Video of the attack was shared on Facebook after the incident, and quickly spread across social media. In the footage, a group of five males approach...

SEPTA is contending with a new kind of fare evasion, in which enterprising scammers are using Key cards to give cash-paying riders a discounted trip on the Broad Street Line and the El. Because SEPTA does not track or estimate revenue losses due to fare evasion, said Rich Burnfield, deputy general manager and treasurer, the agency can’t say whether more people are dodging fares than usual. Cashiers working on the subway lines, however, insist scofflaws are proliferating. […] The latest trend is made possible by the Key card, which offers a $2-per-ride fare, compared with $2.50 for customers paying cash...

The city’s crippling weeklong transit strike ended early Monday, ensuring that all buses, trolleys and subways will be up and running by Election Day. […] Democratic city leaders had feared the strike could weaken turnout at the polls on Tuesday and hurt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who needs a big haul of votes in the city if she is to win the battleground state instead of Republican Donald Trump. The big concern was people were spending so much time getting to and from work that some wouldn't have time to go to the polls. …

The week-long work stoppage that sidelined subways, trolleys, and buses and threatened to complicate a closely contested presidential election ended in the predawn hours Monday as SEPTA and leadership for the Transportation Workers Union Local 234 reached a tentative five-year contract for 4,738 transit personnel. While the agreement needs to be formally approved by SEPTA's board and union members, it means workers will return to their jobs during the day. The city's mass transit system gradually returned to service Monday morning, with full service promised before Tuesday morning's commuters begin their treks to work — just in time for Election...

Authorities have been called to the report of a suspicious package at the Norristown Transportation Center. The incident was reported at 1:21 p.m. Sunday at the center located at West Lafayette and Swede streets. Police have evacuated the area as a precaution. …