Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) will lease 10 railcars to alleviate pressure on its Regional Rail service, as it performs federally mandated safety inspections and makes repairs to Silverliner IV cars, following five separate fires on that equipment this year, according to local media outlets.
The 10 railcars will come from MARC in Maryland. “It will cost $22,000 a month to lease each of the [non-powered] coaches from the MARC Train Service—or about $2.6 million over the one-year term of the agreement, SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said,” according to The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Nov. 12 report, which noted that the cars can be used with SEPTA’s 15 locomotives.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has allowed SEPTA to use capital funds for the lease, which “will be accounted for in the 2026-27 fiscal year budget,” the newspaper said.
The cars will start service in mid-December, according to NBC10 in Philadelphia.
Additionally, SEPTA “issued a request for proposals last week to solicit bids from manufacturers for new railcars,” the Inquirer reported; the deadline is April 10.
On Oct. 1, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released an investigative report and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued an Emergency Order in response to the Silverliner IV train fires. As part of SEPTA’s compliance with the FRA Emergency Order, Silverliner IVs have been rotated from service for inspections, testing, and safety upgrades, which has led to train delays, overcrowding and cancellations; and the transit authority has said operations staff will continue to remove from service all railcars that raise safety concerns.
Designed and built by General Electric, the Silverliner IV is the fourth-generation EMU (electric multiple unit) in the Silverliner family and was delivered in batches between 1973 and 1976. The Silverliner IVs were operated by the Reading Company until Reading’s absorption into Conrail in 1976. SEPTA took over commuter rail operations and the Silverliner IV fleet from Conrail in 1983. Silverliner IVs now represent approximately 225 of the 390 passenger-carrying railcars (which include passenger coaches, cab cars, and self-propelled units) in SEPTA’s Regional Rail operations fleet, according to the NTSB. “The Silverliner IV fleet has not been refurbished since its original deployment,” according to the government agency.
FRA Emergency Order No. 34 requires SEPTA to take 15 specific actions including operator and mechanical personnel training, installation of new thermal detectors, daily maintenance quality control inspections, and a point-to-point inspection of every Silverliner IV railcar “following an aggressive FRA-approved schedule,” according to SEPTA.
In response to the FRA’s Emergency Order and the NTSB’s report, SEPTA said it added the following measures:
- “In-person inspectors are now present on all trains passing through Center City stations to conduct safety checks and respond quickly to any equipment issues.
- “Mid-run inspections have been added to review fault indicator lights and other critical systems while trains are in operation, supplementing existing pre- and post-run inspections.
- “Live video monitoring allows SEPTA’s Control Center supervisors to view train interiors in real time to check indicator lights and system alerts, ensuring quicker response to any potential issues.
- “Expanded maintenance staffing ensures that inspection and repair work can be completed more quickly and around the clock to meet the FRA’s deadlines.
- “Enhanced employee safety briefings and trainings are being conducted to ensure all operators, mechanics, and inspectors understand new reporting and inspection protocols.
- “Improved documentation and data sharing have been implemented so that all inspection results, repairs, and follow-up actions are logged, tracked, and reported directly to FRA for review.
- “Public communication measures are in place to keep riders informed about safety progress, expected service adjustments, and ongoing compliance updates.”
“SEPTA is committed to fully complying with the FRA Emergency Order, and we are confident that full compliance will also achieve the goal of the NTSB report recommendations,” it has said. All of the actions taken, the transit authority noted, will “strengthen SEPTA’s safety culture, modernize oversight of the Silverliner IV fleet, and ensure that every possible precaution is taken to protect riders, employees, and the region’s rail system.”
According to the Inquirer, SEPTA is “on track” to finish inspections by the Nov. 14 deadline; as of Nov. 12, “inspections were finished on 210 Silverliner IVs, or 94% of the fleet, and 73 of the cars have been returned to Regional Rail service.”
From Nov. 10 through Nov. 24, SEPTA cancelled 22 trains each day on the Airport, Chestnut Hill West, Fox Chase and Warminster lines.
“By the end of the year, we’ll be in a much better position to return to some semblance of normalcy on the system,” SEPTA General Manager Scott A. Sauer told the Inquirer, which noted that “[h]e said customers should see gradual improvement throughout November.”
“Next ‘we’re going to put a plan together to overhaul [Silverliner IV] cars,’” Sauer said. “We need to make them last another six to 10 years.”
By then, the Inquirer said, the “new vehicles should be arriving in Philadelphia.”
SEPTA has said it will continue to work closely with the FRA and share progress on its website to keep the public informed.
Meanwhile, “[t]he Fiscal Cliff that has been haunting the transit industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in ridership and revenue that it caused has placed SEPTA and many other providers in difficult financial straits,” according to a recent article by Railway Age Contributing Editor David Peter Alan. Read more of his SEPTA articles by clicking here and here.
