The audit is done. The disruptions? Not yet — and they’re likely to be with us through the end of the year.
SEPTA announced Friday that it had completed its audit of the entire fleet of 223 Silverliner IV cars, meeting a Nov. 14 federal deadline for safety compliance.
That doesn’t resolve the shortage of rail cars, however. Many of the cars were pulled out of service for significant repairs, with mechanics working to address issues uncovered by the audit. The transit agency said Friday to expect the shortages — and packed trains, skipped stops, cancellations and delays of recent weeks — to continue into December.
“We understand that the recent service disruptions on Regional Rail have wreaked havoc on the daily lives of our riders,” SEPTA General Manager Scott A. Sauer said in a statement. “We appreciate their patience as we work to mitigate the canceled trips, long delays, and crowded railcars.”
Beyond safety checks, crews are now installing advanced heat sensors and additional technology — steps required by Dec. 5, per new federal mandates. The long-term goal: not just to fix the immediate problems, but to catch future ones before they spark another emergency.
For now, SEPTA asks riders to stay tuned to its Alerts page and app for day-to-day updates
It’s the close of one chapter in a story that started earlier this year when a series of onboard fires exposed worrying weaknesses in SEPTA’s staple Silverliner IV trains, prompting the Federal Railroad Administration to order a full audit of every car. The agency scrambled to get cars into the shop, cycling them through a battery of inspections that dug into everything from faulty wiring to electrical system glitches.
The original inspection deadline of Oct. 31 was pushed to Nov. 14, turning these past two weeks into a frantic, around-the-clock operation. At the audit’s peak, more than 20 trains each day were canceled, leaving regulars on the Airport, Chestnut Hill West, Fox Chase, and Warminster lines squeezing onto shortened two- or three-car trains — if they could board at all. Station platforms swelled with waiting passengers, and real-time SEPTA app checks became a morning ritual. SEPTA even leased 10 rail cars from Maryland Area Regional Commuter Rail (MARC), and might do more of that, it said.
The service disruptions come in an already tough year for SEPTA, as funding battles and fare hikes compounded the system’s challenges. The budget compromise reached earlier this week did not address the funding issue.
The post SEPTA completes inspections of Regional Rail cars — though disruptions will continue appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY.
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