The #1 bus no longer runs in the City of Brotherly Love.

Same with the #8, #12, and many others, as the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) implemented a 20% service reduction on Sunday.

And still more cuts are yet to come, leaving Philly with only about half of its current mass transit operations (bus, rail, subway, and trolley) by Jan. 1.

The reason is a phrase we’ve heard around Chicago and Evanston a lot lately — the “fiscal cliff.”

As in Chicago, Philadelphia has a multi-million-dollar financial hole in its transit system’s budget.

Here in our area, without a legislative funding solution or the $771 million cliff for Metra, CTA, and PACE, Chicago service cuts will happen over the course of 2026.

But Philadelphia’s reductions are already under way, as the legislature there failed to come up with the $213 million which SEPTA said was needed to fully fund current services.

The Philadelphia impact will hit harder on Monday, when commuters try to get to work, and students look to find a new way to school on the first day of classes.

Thousands of Philly students use mass transit. Many Evanston Township High School students also ride the bus, the CTA.

In metropolitan Chicago, the Regional Transportation Authority just made the first tiny cut in what could become major surgery, by limiting the number of monthly subsidized rides a passenger can take on a rideshare program for disabled individuals. The fare was also increased from $2 to $3.25.

Those changes are just a drop in the bucket without an Illinois legislature solution, as Metra, CTA, and PACE are projecting a 40% service reduction without resolution to the fiscal cliff crisis.

The Ilinois General Assembly, which was unable to reach a deal before its session ended in May, will try again in October.

About one million commuters a day use mass transit in the Chicago region.

It’s about 800,000 in Philadelphia.

In Philly, transit officials say they could reinstate the services that were cut and head off other potential reductions if Pennsylvania lawmakers can fill the funding gap.

But so far, that bus is off in the distance … and nobody knows if it will show up.