PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Some changes are coming to SETPA’s Regional Rail schedules on Sunday.
The transit agency will still be running the same number of Regional Rail trains with the same number of cars, but starting Sunday, the schedule will get a seasonal adjustment with stops changing times by a few minutes earlier or later.
As part of the plan, SEPTA will put 31 assistant conductors on peak trains to collect fares faster. And because some of its trains share tracks with Amtrak, SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch says the transit agency is spacing out the SEPTA trains to keep Amtrak problems from delaying SEPTA.
"If we put a little bit more distance between our trains and Amtrak trains, we think that we're going to lessen the chance of having a major service impact if they have, say, a temporarily disabled train,” Busch said.
Busch says that would primarily impact passengers on the Paoli-Thorndale line, Trenton line and Wilmington-Newark line, as they are the three main routes that run on Amtrak territory.
Much of the Regional Rail fleet is over 50 years old. So Busch says SEPTA is moving its newer cars to longer peak routes to reduce the chances of equipment failures.