PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Regional Rail commuters were faced with more headaches Monday morning as SEPTA canceled about two dozen trains on several lines because of ongoing federally mandated fire inspections. But if most of the fleet has already been inspected, why aren’t more cars returning to service?
SEPTA said it is on pace to meet Friday’s federal deadline to inspect all of its 50-year-old Silverliner IV rail cars. The transit agency was given a two-week extension to finish the work.
As of Monday morning, 193 of 223 rail cars have finished inspections — more than 85% of the fleet. However, only 70 cars are back on the tracks.
SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch said crews are finding non-safety-critical issues during these federal inspections. Plus, SEPTA is still installing the required thermal detection units on each car. So, he said, about 120 cars are still in the shop.
“It’s a numbers crunch,” he explained. “We have a lot of those things coming together right now that are resulting in many more cars than usual being sidelined” — resulting in Monday’s cancellations.
As cars are repaired, more are gradually expected to return to service by the end of the year, Busch said. In the meantime, SEPTA is working to bring in cars from Maryland.
“We’re pretty close to finalizing an agreement with MARC [Maryland Area Regional Commuter] in Maryland for 10 coach cars,” he said.
But even if those cars were acquired right away, it would be several weeks before they could provide any relief to commuters.