PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The pain will continue for SEPTA Regional Rail riders. SEPTA announced Wednesday that the same two dozen trains that were canceled on Monday will not run for the rest of the week.
SEPTA went ahead and canceled trains on the Airport, Fox Chase, Warminster, and Chestnut Hill West lines on Thursday and Friday because of car shortages from the federally mandated fire inspections and ongoing repairs to its Silverliner IV fleet.
Full details about the canceled trips are available here. Riders are also urged to check septa.org or the SEPTA app for the latest updates.
Spokesperson Andrew Busch said while the decision wasn’t ideal, it 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 nearly all of the 223 Silverliners, but only 75 of the inspected cars have returned to service. 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 is awaiting details on 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.