SEPTA totalling up cost of Silverliner railcar problems

Now that SEPTA has a plan in place to fix its sidelined Silverliner V train cars, the transit agency is beginning to tote up the costs.

The priority, said SEPTA general manager Jeff Knueppel, is fixing the Silverliner V railcars.  Paying costs associated with repairs and renting replacement cars will be totalled up when all is back to normal, he said. 

But he was able to assess how much the safety problem cost the transit authority in July.”We had a revenue loss on the railroad of about $2.5 million,” he said. “We’ve probably incurred in July about $600,000 in lease cost for the vehicles. That number in September will rise to about $1 million.”Ridership numbers for August are still not available, Knueppel said.

SEPTA will be offering express bus service to supplement the regional rails at several stations starting Tuesday.  That is expected to cost another $100,000 a week.SEPTA has retained legal representation to negotiate with the manufacturer over repayment of its costs after cracks were discovered on 120 of the Silverliner V railcars and they were taken out of service.