Kpou, a 71-year-old diabetic, had taken two buses to buy a bag of bananas and okra while visiting markets in Southwest Philadelphia. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority system, he said, was his lifeline for buying food, traveling to his doctor’s appointments and visiting his family.

“Everything I do revolves around SEPTA,” said Kpou, who had a stroke three years ago and is unable to drive. “It’s a lifesaver, and if they cut it, I’m stuck. I will be virtually in prison.”

Across Philadelphia and its suburbs, a region of more than 6 million residents, commuters are bracing for a dramatic reduction in public transportation after state lawmakers were unable to agree on how to fund the struggling system.

SEPTA officials have called it a “death spiral.” The changes to one of the nation’s largest mass transit agencies are expected to hit the poor, elderly and daily commuters the hardest. Many will have to start their commutes earlier and arrive home later.

But ever since the pandemic slashed ridership for big city transit systems, officials and transit experts have been raising questions about the sustainability of public transportation that millions of Americans rely on each day.

They have warned of “fiscal cliffs” in which transit systems start cutting services, potentially reducing ridership in ways that necessitates even deeper service cuts. Transit agencies in Chicago, Dallas, Portland and San Francisco all face similar challenges.

SEPTA, which serves about 800,000 riders daily, will curtail service on all bus and rail lines by 20 percent as well as eliminate 32 bus routes on Sunday. The changes are expected to make buses and trains slower and more crowded as well as present new complications for 55,000 Philadelphia students who start school on Monday.

“A cut this size for us is unprecedented,” said Andrew Busch, director of media relations for the transit system. “We have never instituted a cut like this so we know there are going to be unintended consequences.”

The “31 route,” one of the bus lines that will be eliminated Sunday, serves 4,1oo riders daily.

At the end of the line in the Overbrook Park neighborhood on Thursday, Michael Thompson, 25, was waiting for the bus after he finished his job working at T.J. Maxx. He said he doesn’t know how he can keep his job without the bus.

“I have kids to feed so this is all just messed up,” Thompson said. “I may have to look for another job because I can’t afford Uber and Lyfts to come up here.”

The cuts this month are just a preview of even more painful reductions in January unless Pennsylvania’s legislature acts soon to help SEPTA close a $231 million budget shortfall.

The transit agency will raise fares by about 22 percent on Sept. 1, and reduce service by another 25 percent in January. It will also eliminate five commuter rail lines that service the suburbs as well as Delaware and New Jersey.

Philip Plotch, a senior fellow at the Eno Center for Transportation, a nonpartisan think tank, compared the challenges facing Philadelphia and other transit systems to the plight of shopping malls.

“In a shopping mall, if Macy’s leaves and then maybe the Gap leaves, then fewer people are going to go to the shopping mall,” Plotch said. “And then more places leave…until you have a dead shopping mall.”

Jarrett Walker, a consultant on transit planning and policy, said mass transit systems nationwide are suffering from the drop in ridership after the pandemic as well as soaring labor costs as personnel, including bus drivers, become harder to retain and hire. Many of those workers are finding less stressful jobs working for companies such as Amazon, Walker said.

Transit agencies also can no longer rely on the billions of dollars of aid they received during the pandemic from the federal government.

Philadelphia received $1.5 billion in federal funds, which were spent by June 2024. Meanwhile, fare revenue has climbed back to just 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

Busch said SEPTA has also swelled its operating costs by adding about 50 new Transit Police officers to combat a pandemic-era surge in crime on the system. Fuel and maintenance costs for buses and trains has also increased.

“It was kind of a perfect storm of sorts of all those costs going up, ridership still recovering, and the covid funds running out,” Busch said.

SEPTA’s plan for slashing its service resembles the recent debate in the Washington region.

Faced at the time with a $750 million funding gap, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority announced plans in 2023 to dramatically reduce rail and bus service.

The proposals rattled leaders in the District, Maryland and Virginia who agreed to a $5.6 billion funding plan for WMATA over the next two decades. But the three jurisdictions still have to come up with the funding.

Leaders of the Chicago’s Transit Authority are also warning they may need to slash services by up to 40 percent unless Illinois lawmakers resolve a $771 million shortfall.

“It’s a significant crisis that is not just going to affect the traveling public. It’s a big industry, and there is a lot of jobs at stake,” said P.S. Sriraj, director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “Transit affects the economic impact of a region including property values, and it alleviates congestion.”

In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro and other Democratic leaders had been pressing to avoid the budget cuts by passing a comprehensive funding bill that would benefit SEPTA as well as Pittsburgh’s mass transit agency, which is facing a $100 million deficit.

But Pennsylvania Senate Republicans, most of whom represent rural districts, have raised questions about the efficiency of SEPTA, with one GOP lawmaker suggesting the $2.6 billion agency should be privatized.

Under growing pressure, the state Senate approved a bill last week that would have shifted money from the state’s construction budget to help shore up operations of transit agencies as well as provide new funding for roads and bridges.

Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R) said the legislation provided “substantial funding for transportation investments by utilizing existing and unused taxpayer dollars.”

House Democrats swiftly rejected the GOP proposal, saying it was irresponsible to use construction money for operating costs.

“They are literally robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Jordan Harris (D), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, in an interview.

Senate Republicans have now adjourned until Sept. 8.

State Sen. Nikil Saval (D), who represents Center City and southwestern Philadelphia, and other local leaders say the cuts threaten Philadelphia’s status as a premier U.S. city that can host major events, including six World Cup matches next summer. The service reductions that start Sunday include the elimination of special “express” trains that take fans to the stadiums where the Eagles football team and Phillies baseball team play.

“Philadelphia isn’t Philadelphia without mass transit,” Harris said.

At the 31 bus stop in Overbrook, commuters talked in more intimate terms. Their lives, they said, really do revolve around that bus.

Larcenia Riley, 59, said she took the 31 every day to her side job of pushing shopping carts in an Aldi parking lot for tips.

Riley, who said she suffers from a mental health disability, makes enough money in “quarters and dollars” to afford the cigarettes and sodas that help her relax.

“This is going to change my life,” Riley said of the discontinuation of the bus line. “I won’t be able to earn extra money.”

As home health-care technician Darien Myers, 32, waited for the bus, he wondered how he will get to his appointments. He questioned how he could afford “$30 Uber rides” on his $12-an-hour salary.

“I’ll end up spending more money than I get paid,” Myers said.

Rachel Weiner contributed to this report.