Philadelphia Daily News (PA)   January 6, 2005 Section: LOCAL Edition: 4STAR Page: 05 Memo:RETHINKING PHILADELPHIA   URBAN WARRIOR  Time for straphangers to unite CARLA ANDERSON URBAN WARRIOR   THERE ARE 850,000 people who get on a SEPTA train or bus every day.   Think about that. It's enough people to fill the Linc 13 times over. It's the size of some small nations.   Just imagine what could happen if this many people organized to demand the bus, train and trolley service this region deserves.   The state lawmakers and bureaucrats who've so far managed to run the Philadelphia area's mass-transit system into near ruin wouldn't know what hit them.   We know it can work. For proof, all we need to do is look a few hours north, at the New York Public Interest Research Group's "Straphanger Campaign."   Twenty-five years ago in Manhattan, mass transit had gotten so unsafe, and so unpopular, that ridership had dropped by 80 percent and businesses were saying it had driven them out of the city.   But then riders banded together. They lobbied for, and eventually got, $30 billion in new investments and additional service, bringing the system back from the brink. Trains are now cleaner, safer, and more than 10 times as reliable.   Fares have actually decreased - for the first time in the history of the system.   And the low-budget, grassroots "Straphangers" have become a national example of how the little guys can get things done.   "We maintain a working list of about 35,000 rider/activists, a budget of about $250,000 and a staff of three full-timers and two part-timers," said Neysa Pranger, campaign coordinator for the New York Straphangers. "We organize riders, we get them to come out to protest, we lobby elected and transit officials, and, as a last-ditch effort, we file lawsuits and we go to court," she said.   Now, mass transit in Southeastern Pennsylvania is looking at its own brink. With funding sources drying up, and near-zero interest in the system among the Republican leaders in Harrisburg, SEPTA's fares may very well hit a national high of $3 - and critical bus and train routes could well be cut.   I say we need our own Straphangers.   If New York can do it, we certainly can. We need to pool our voices, get organized, and do a better job of speaking up for what we want.   The first order of business, obviously, is to get the Legislature to keep SEPTA running for the next two years with an immediate infusion of cash.   Call your own legislator, as well as the legislative leaders in the state House and Senate, and make your needs clear.   There's no excuse not to. A group called SaveTransit (www.savetransit.org) has made it easy. Log on, click on the button that asks: "What can I do?"; find the appropriate lawmakers, and fill out a form letter that you can send directly via e-mail.   Or you can do it the old-fashioned way, and write it yourself.   Tell the elected officials that wield power in Harrisburg that you want top-notch transit, and you won't stand for adolescent political bickering over something so important. (If you need their addresses, they are on the Web site too.)   Demand more service, not less, and a reliable source of funding for the system.   But that's just the beginning.   Even if state legislators agree to a two-year bailout, we still need to rethink this system.   And riders will still need a bullhorn to be heard, whether it's by the elected officials who control the money or by the transit- board members who control the rules.   If 850,000 of us decide to step up, get active, and speak with the kind of organized political voice that's worked so well for the Straphangers, we might just have a shot at getting a system that's a lot better than what we have now.   But if we don't? Well, you know how that goes. You never get what you don't ask for.   The good news is that Philadelphia, for all its problems, is no slouch when it comes to community organizing. All we need is a leader, and a good starting point.   Fortunately, there's a group that's poised to provide just that.   Marc Stier, executive director of West Mount Airy Neighbors' Association, has organized Phillytransit, a grass-roots group for people who ride SEPTA (www.phillytransit.com).   So far, it's gathered more than 3,000 names and addresses of concerned riders, and managed to truck three busloads of people to Harrisburg for recent public hearings on funding.   Stier's raising money now, and has informal promises of fund-raising help from several powerful unions, including the Transit Workers Union, the Hotel Worker's Union and the AFL-CIO.   But he needs help, for today's funding battle and also for tomorrow's effort to remake the system.   "We want to focus on the immediate short-term need, but also on improving the system in the long term, with a long-term goal of making mass transit a much bigger part of people's lives," said Stier.   He's talking about a system that makes it easy to buy whatever ticket you want, whenever you want. Clean buses and trains, with reliable schedules and inviting atmosphere. And we can ditch that endless waiting at some god-forsaken bus stop. We want real-time information about exactly when that ride is coming, and where it is going.   If this sounds appealing, the time to act is now. We'll never get a better shot at reaching toward a brighter future for this complex region's transit system.   So if you ride SEPTA, think you might one day, want to ride SEPTA, or even if you live in the suburbs and you hate watching your community get clogged up with sprawl:   Log onto the Web site, www. phillytransit.com, and add your name to the list, and start speaking up. *   Got a city-dwellers' problem you can't solve? Call the Urban Warrior at 215-854-4810 or e-mail urbanwarrior @phillynews.com.   Illustration:PHOTO ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ/Daily News file photo   By joining forces, commuters like these awaiting a bus at Broad and Olney can make a difference.