UPDATED at 7:06 p.m.
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The federal government has recommended that SEPTA immediately sideline its Silverliner IV Regional Rail cars, after repeated train fires this year.
According to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday, the Federal Railroad Authority has issued an emergency order for the agency to take immediate action within the next seven days to reduce risk of additional fires.
The order follows a National Transportation Safety Board recommendation that SEPTA suspend operations of the rail cars until it can determine the causes of five train fires since February.
The NTSB said SEPTA's current operating practices have failed to protect passengers and crews because the 50-year-old cars have been kept in service. The panel added there was an “immediate and unacceptable safety risk” because of electrical fires that can spread to occupied compartments, a risk that can't be addressed without extensive work.
Some 225 Silverliner IV cars make up two-thirds of SEPTA’s Regional Rail fleet. General Manager Scott Sauer said while the transit agency respected the NTSB, it would wait for direction from the FRA.
“We're not going to pull the fleet at this time. We're going to continue with the many mitigation measures we've implemented. We're going to implement a couple more, just to ensure we're getting the highest look at what's going on out there. But we're confident we're running a very safe fleet,” Sauer said.
“We're addressing each and every thing that pops up. FRA has been on site, continues to be on site working with us. So that's essentially going to be our response at least in the near term.”
Under the emergency order requirements, SEPTA has to review maintenance planning, submit an inspection schedule for each Silverliner, and come up with a plan to determine the cause of each of the five fires this year. The findings are to be submitted to the administration by Oct. 30.
SEPTA pulled many of its regional rail cars off the tracks in August for inspection. Sauer said the agency hasn't been able to find a definitive cause of the fires, but it has implemented reporting procedures for employees and supervisors to ensure that it gets information whenever something isn't functioning the way it should.
The SEPTA GM also said the NTSB report shines a light on the fact that the agency needs not only recurring operating funds, but money to replace its fleet and infrastructure.