In a couple weeks, SEPTA Regional Rail riders could start getting noticeable relief from the shortened trains, peak-hour crowding, delays and cancellations they\u2019ve been dealing with for the past three months.<\/p>\n
The transit authority has received sufficient quantities of a scarce thermal wire product it needs to do federally mandated safety upgrades to railcars, and is now putting about eight repaired cars back into service every day, spokesperson Andrew Busch said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Maintenance crews have so far installed thermal circuits in 203 of the agency\u2019s 223 aging Silverliner IV cars, he said. Those systems alert train operators to potentially dangerous overheating, with the aim of preventing more fires like those that occurred on five Regional Rail trains<\/a> last year.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe can get a car done in about four hours,\u201d Busch said. \u201cSo once we have the wire available to us, we can move pretty quickly and get that done.\u201d<\/p>\n Workers are also doing other types of repairs that came up during mandated inspections of the Silverliner IVs, which are more than 50 years old and make up about two-thirds of the Regional Rail fleet. As of this week 180 cars have gone through both processes.\u00a0<\/p>\n The car shortage has forced the authority to run many two-car trains, which are often extremely packed during the morning and evening commutes. Busch said those conditions should gradually start to ease.<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand the frustration that customers have when they\u2019re getting on those overly crowded trains or they\u2019re dealing with a cancellation. That\u2019s very frustrating. It\u2019s been an extraordinarily difficult three months now for our riders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really can\u2019t thank them enough for their patience. We know it\u2019s impacted them and their lives and their families and their ability to get to work,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Adding more three- and four-car trains\u00a0<\/p>\n On Oct. 1 the Federal Rail Administration ordered SEPTA to take several steps to address the fire risk by the end of that month. That included pulling Silverliner IVs off the tracks<\/a> for inspections and installation of thermal circuits.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, SEPTA soon purchased all supplies of the wire in North America and had to wait for more to be manufactured and delivered. That made it impossible to meet the deadline, even after it was extended to Dec. 5. Affected railcars could not be returned to service without the upgrade.<\/p>\n The second of two shipments of wire finally arrived over the holidays, and crews are now working \u201caround the clock\u201d to make repairs, Busch said. After upgrades and repairs, railcars then undergo a set of checks to ready them for return to the tracks.<\/p>\n \u201cJust over the last couple days, we\u2019ve been adding more three- and four-car trains back,\u201d he said. In addition, \u201cwe were able to [restore] some of the express service that is scheduled in the morning and the evening. That\u2019s helping us clear out some of the high passenger volume locations that had gotten backed up when everything was running local.\u201d<\/p>\n SEPTA has been able to continue running Regional Rail using its 120 newer Silverliner V cars as well as its 45 coach cars, which don\u2019t have engines and are pulled by locomotives. The system has a combined 388 passenger cars.<\/p>\n