In September 2004, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), the primary transit organization servicing the greater Philadelphia area, announced that it had incurred a $62 million budget deficit. In order to close the deficit, transit authority officials would need to convince the Pennsylvania State Legislature to supplement the system's funding. But when presented with SEPTA's financial predicament, the state legislature balked. Without the necessary financial means to operate at its current level, SEPTA developed a so-called "doomsday scenario." The plan called for an...