LANTA plans major service cuts, fare hikes in Lehigh Valley

LANTA, the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority, expects to make drastic cuts to its service routes because of a budget deficit. 

LANTA has released its draft budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.  

The draft budget calls for the largest service cut instituted by the transit authority in decades, with a service cut of 20% as well as a fare increase of 25% on the fixed route bus system and 25% or more on the Shared Ride for Seniors paratransit service.  

LANTA said the cuts and fair increases are intended to address an annual recurring unfunded deficit of approximately $8 million on the bus system and an additional $3 million for the Shared Ride for Seniors services starting in the coming fiscal year. 

“The Lehigh Valley continues to add population and jobs along with new land development or redevelopment, all resulting in more people going to more places at more times throughout the day,” said Owen O’Neil, LANTA executive director in a statement on the authority’s website. 

Since 2010, the Lehigh Valley grew by 50,000 people and grew by 7,000 people in 2024 alone. That is the equivalent of adding a small city to the region in just 15 years, he said.  

LANTA would have faced this budget deficit earlier but for the past three years, he said, but the agency has been able to fill that budget gap with federal COVID relief funding which it received in fiscal year 2021.  

Those funds were used and the budget gap for the coming fiscal year and subsequent years is unfunded. 

Specific plans have not yet been finalized, but service cuts would likely come in January 2026 or earlier. If it is necessary to implement service cuts, LANTA would hold public meetings later in the year to present the specific service reduction plans as well as the plan for fare increases. 

In the meantime, the authority did post a list of June changes to its service, which includes the elimination of a number of routes. 

https://lantabus.com/june-2025-service-changes/ 

Those changes would go into effect June 30. 

The reductions proposed in the budget will occur if LANTA does not find additional funding. 

“Service reductions are the last thing we want to do. At LANTA, we strive to expand people’s mobility options and their access to opportunity. In our most recent rider survey, 75% of LANTA riders indicated that they use LANTA service to get back and forth to work,”  O’Neil said. 

He said he expects the cuts will disrupt people’s lives and make it harder if not impossible to get to their jobs, medical appointments, grocery stores and all of their necessary trips. Companies will find it harder to attract and retain the employees they need to grow or even maintain their businesses here in the Lehigh Valley, he said.