SEPTA announced it is canceling at least two dozen Regional Rail trains for the third day in a row as the agency seeks to finish federally-mandated safety inspections by the Nov. 14 deadline.
The cancellations will impact the Airport, Chestnut Hill West, Fox Chase and Warminster lines, the agency said.
The trains canceled for Wednesday morning are: 9411, 412, 425, 802, 809 and 814.
The following trains are also canceled for both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon/evening: 9426, 9435, 436, 449, 9450, 9459, 460, 473, 821, 826, 833, 838, 845, 850, 857, 862.
Regional Rail riders are also being advised that there will be fewer and more crowded rail cars for each train that runs, and there could still be missed stops – especially near Center City – or last-minute cancelations.
The transit agency said it’s running shorter trains since some are out of service every day. There are about 100 riders in each train car, with about two or three cars a train. That means about 200-300 riders are effected by every canceled train.
Tuesday’s announcement came after SEPTA was granted a two week extension on Oct. 31 to inspect the fleet of rail cars, which began after the NTSB called for the mass transit provider to suspend the operation of the entire Silverliner IV fleet until they determine the exact causes of recent train fires.
In addition to the safety inspections, the agency is also trying to meet a Dec. 5 deadline for installing heat sensors on trains. Most newer model trains already have them, according to SEPTA, but it’s older fleet is not equipped with this safety measure.
At the same time that SEPTA is doing all this work, it’s also finding minor things to fix on these rail cars. That’s taking them out of service even longer. Officials told NBC10 the extra work could range from minutes to hours to a full day.
Although 204 of the 223 Silverliner IVs have been inspected, 131 of them remain out of service after inspections to work on other issues, SEPTA officials told NBC10.
“Most of these things are not safety sensitive items, like replacing cables, contact tips for electrical components, any hardware we come across,” said Andrew Busch, a SEPTA spokesperson.
To help alleviate some of the pressure on SEPTA’s trains, the agency has made a deal with Maryland to use 10 of their train cars for six months staring in mid-December.
The agency said riders can expect disruptions until Jan. 2026.
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