Silverliner V assembly line will take awhile to get up to speed

It’s going to take a bit more time to get the Silverliner V assembly plant up to speed.

United Transit Systems, the consortium building the new SEPTA railcars, anticipates that until crews are working on the 39th Silverliner V car the production line will not be “fully functional,” according to SEPTA’s February progress report.

Until then, explained spokeswoman Heather Redfern, work crews have to travel to each of the cars at the plant to conduct work.

This arrangement, according to the report, makes it harder to impact “a comprehensive material control system.”

In response to that problem, UTS has brought over 27 outfitting personnel from South Korea.

The report also notes that the consortium was working on a way to streamline the door installation process.

Once the final assembly system is put in place, railcars will travel to work crews, speeding up the process.

Out of 120 railcars, five were in service at the end of march ― three pilot cars assembled in South Korea and two production cars assembled at a South Philadelphia plant.

Two additional production cars were scheduled to be delivered on March 14 and 17, but SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said delivery was to be pushed back until March 21.

Contact the reporter at acampisi@planphilly.com

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