PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The pain continues for SEPTA Regional Rail riders. SEPTA announced Tuesday that nearly two dozen trains cancelled for two consecutive days would not run on Wednesday, as inspections and repairs continue.
SEPTA is pre-cancelling trains on the Airport, Fox Chase and Chestnut Hill West lines because of car shortages from the federally mandated fire inspections and ongoing repairs to the Silverliner IV fleet.
Spokesperson Andrew Busch said while it wasn’t ideal, the decision was made to give riders some certainty. “If we didn’t make those cancellations, we feel like we would be in danger of having more last-minute cancellations,” he said.
“Certainly, service is not at a level that we consider acceptable.”
The transit agency has finished inspections on 206 of the 223 Silverliners, but only 75 of the inspected cars have returned to service as the rest remain in the shop for other repairs. Busch said SEPTA has finalized a deal to lease 10 coach cars from the Maryland Rail Commuter transit system, but awaits details of the delivery. Once those cars arrive, he said it would be several weeks of maintenance and operator training before they could provide any relief for riders.
Federal transportation officials initially gave SEPTA an Oct. 31 deadline to finish the inspections, but later approved an extension through Nov. 14.