SEPTA owed millions in fines for overdue Philadelphia railcars

The next generation of SEPTA railcars is so far behind schedule that the company building them has racked up millions of dollars in fines.  

The first Silverliner V railcars were put into service in October 2010 with plenty of fanfare.  One hundred and twenty cars were ordered at a cost of $274 million.  Kristin Geiger of SEPTA says delivery is still behind schedule and the fines are mounting every day.

 

“The fine currently is 8.4 million.  It’s $200 per day per car we’ve received 54 of the cars have been delivered and we have 43 to 44 in service and we anticipate adding six or more cars to our fleet each month,” said Geiger.

Geiger says at this point, SEPTA and the manufacturer Hyundai-Rotem are still working out how to deal with the penalties.

“We’re negotiating with them as to how they are going to give us that 8.4 million,” said Geiger.

She says all of the remaining cars are expected to be delivered by the summer of 2012