Despite a mounting budget crisis, SEPTA plans on increasing its Regional Rail service next month, writes Emma Dooling for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The agency will add 123 trains to the Regional Rail schedule from September 8, including 24 trains added to the weekday schedule and 99 trains on the weekends.

After the increase, the transit authority’s weekday Regional Rail will be up to 80 percent of pre-pandemic service levels, compared to the current 77 percent. Meanwhile, the weekend service will increase from 63 percent of its 2019 volume to 84 percent.

Regional Rail ridership is currently around 67 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

The upcoming changes to the service will encompass the full restoration of hourly weekend service on the majority of lines as well as new weekday trains on several routes. The latter will include the Lansdale/Doylestown Line, the Trenton Line, and the Chestnut Hill East and West lines.

Addionally SEPTA will add more train cars on some lines, including the Paoli/Thorndale and Media/Wawa lines.

The weekends will also see the return of a 30-minute weekend service to Philadelphia International Airport as well as the connection of the Airport Line to the Manayunk/Norristown Line.

Read more about SEPTA in the Philadelphia Business Journal.