Maryland trains now rolling on SEPTA tracks to help reduce overcrowding

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Ten trains from the Maryland Area Regional Commuter system, or MARC, are now in SEPTA’s service as part of a lease deal funded by additional state capital funds the transit agency got in November.

“SEPTA received the MARC cars in early December,” said SEPTA’s Andrew Busch. “What we’ve had to do since then is get crews and also our train crews, so that would be the engineers and the conductors along with our mechanical staff trained up.”

Funding for the lease was approved last year as part of a $220 million agreement to help SEPTA fix its aging railcars, rent some replacements and return full service for riders. Following federal inspections last year, SEPTA’s suspended use of its 50-year-old Silverliner IV cars until inspections and repairs could be made after a series of fires on the trains.

For now, the additional MARC trains will run during the midday hours and will be easily visible to the public.

“We don’t put SEPTA logos over top of the MARC logos,” Busch said. “They’re going to be pulled by SEPTA’s locomotives. … It’s kind of an anomaly on the system, but we’re thrilled to have them out there to be able to add some more service for our customers. And we are continuing to look for options to add more railcars.”

To start, the cars will only run on the Trenton and West Trenton lines.