PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — SEPTA has issued a warning and an apology to riders: Travel troubles on the Regional Rail will continue for the next week or so as the transit agency pulls train cars out of service for inspections.
This comes in response to last week’s recommendation from federal transportation officials. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Railroad Administration advised SEPTA that it needs to take action after a series of fires on its Silverliner IV train cars earlier this year.
Some Regional Rail lines have experienced delays, cancellations and crowded cars amid the process.
SEPTA said it has already made progress with dozens of mitigation efforts since the first fire in February. But now, because of the emergency order, it is adding inspections to all trains that run through Center City and live video monitoring on indicator lights on the trains.
SEPTA is also trying to get to the root cause of the fires on the Silverliner IV cars, which are about 50 years old — some of the oldest still in operation in the country. The Silverliner IV cars make up about two-thirds of SEPTA’s fleet.