SEPTA receives $13.3M to replace 50-year-old Silverliner IV railcars

SEPTA is getting a $3.3 million federal grant to upgrade its Silver Liner for regional rail cars and invest in new trains. Federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy making the announcement today at SEPTA's Overbrook Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia. The Silver Liner cars are more than 50 years old. SEPTA says they're the oldest rail car still in operation in the country and are well past due to be replaced. Now this money comes from the Rail Vehicle Replacement Grant Program which was funded by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Duffy says the grant is part of a larger nationwide investment. We are making great investments in transit around the country and so here today we're announcing $166 million in total investment in transit around America. In the interim SEPTA is renting 10 rail cars from Maryland's Commuter Rail Agency and buying 24 rail cars from Montreal, Canada. So how did we get here? You may remember five Silver Liner 4 cars caught fire last year and then in October the Federal Railroad Administration ordered SEPTA to pull them, perform additional emergency inspections and it caused a number of delays and cancellations for riders throughout the regional rail system. SEPTA's General Manager thanking the agency's workers for what they did to get the rail cars back out. These are the nameless and faceless people who do the tremendous work to keep this fleet and all the fleets that SEPTA run operational. A previous grant also going toward replacing the rail cars on SEPTA's Market Frankfurt line and starting this weekend SEPTA is changing schedules on the Paoli-Thorndale line for an infrastructure project. The new schedule starts Sunday. The Transit Authority says most inbound trains will leave five minutes earlier than usual. Trains will also take a different route between Overbrook and 30th Street stations. SEPTA says the Amtrak work will continue through early November.