SEPTA inspections cause major delays for Regional Rail users

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

Earlier this month, the Federal Railroad Administration issued an Emergency Order after several recent fires on SEPTA’s Regional Rail trains. Now, riders are experiencing service disruptions due to the ongoing inspections of 225 of its older Silverliner IV railcars.

SEPTA’s Andrew Busch said trains will have two or more cars removed as they perform federally mandated inspections and make modifications to keep the cars on the tracks.

“We’re trying to keep everything on a regular schedule with shorter trains. So somebody who’s accustomed to a train that has six cars is most likely down to a four-car train, and then the reductions follow from there,” Busch said.

As several trains rolled by stations without stopping because they were at full capacity, some frustrated commuters took to buses instead of the trains. Busch said 55 trains were canceled the first day of the inspections. By day two, 12 trains were canceled.

The bus ride takes about twice the normal commute time because it has to deal with city streets, stoplights and traffic.

Busch said it will probably take a month to complete the inspection and modification of the 50-year-old trains.

“New thermal monitors on them to make sure that we’re monitoring anything that could potentially be leading to a fire,” he said. “We already have a lot of indicator lights that will go on if there’s a problem, but this is going to be an added safety feature that we’re putting in, but it’s going to require – with the age of these cars – it requires a retrofit.”

Federal officials gave the city 30 days to implement mitigation plans, which allowed SEPTA to keep the trains rolling.

With more than 200 aging train cars, it creates a unique problem for SEPTA. If they had to replace all of them, it would take 10 years to source the cars, and would cost more than $2 billion.  That is money transit agency leaders say they just don’t have.

Officials say if they had to pull the cars off the tracks, there would be a crisis, because it would result in drastic service cuts that would reduce trains to weekend-level frequency. It would also force many riders to find alternatives to the regional rail trains.

SEPTA will offer the latest information on cancellations and delays on its website.