PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The new rail cars SEPTA bought in March have finally arrived in the Philadelphia area, but the transit agency said it may still take some time to put them into service.
The two-dozen surplus cars were purchased from Montreal’s Exo transit system for $8.6 million. The agency’s board approved beefing up its fleet after its aging Silverliner IV cars retired last year.
Those new cars showed up at Woodburne Station in Bucks County on Sunday after some delays from using a third party to ship them across the U.S.-Canada border. Their next stop will be the Frazer maintenance yard, where SEPTA crews will prepare them for Regional Rail service.
The work will take a few months and involve a variety of additions and modifications: installing a Positive Train Control system, new batteries, shortening exterior doors to accommodate SEPTA’s higher platforms, and changing some signage from French to English.
SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch said that once the trains are ready, they will likely be used to supplement and expand service.
“If we need extras for trains that have to go out of service, or if we want to look at some spots where we can add some service where there’s demand,” Busch explained. “It just gives us a lot more flexibility overall.”
For the time being, the new cars will be used to lessen the impact of losing the old Silverliner IVs, but SEPTA is expected to award a contract for new Silverliners by the end of the year.
The agency says it will still take a few months to prepare the cars for service
The agency says it will still take a few months to prepare the cars for service
