Philadelphia transit agency says it's complying with orders to upgrade railcars implicated in fires

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and leaders of Philadelphia’s mass transit agency said Monday that the system is fully complying with federal orders to take measures to help prevent fires in an aging electric railcar model that is heavily used in its regional rail fleet.

The October order from the Federal Railroad Administration came after federal transportation authorities investigated five fires this year involving the Silverliner IV passenger railcars used by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA.

Shapiro, a Democrat, said he is sending an extra $220 million in state aid to SEPTA to help it comply with the orders. SEPTA said that, starting Monday, some of the 225 Silverliner IV cars will return to service for the first time since October.

All five fires forced everyone aboard to evacuate — in one case, as many as 350 passengers — with a few minor injuries reported. One railcar was involved in two of the fires, and two other railcars were destroyed, the National Transportation Safety Board has said.

SEPTA is one of the nation’s largest mass transit agencies, carrying 800,000 daily riders on buses, trolleys and rail. It blames inadequate public funding for a backlog of upgrades of more than $10 billion.

The recommendation comes at a time when SEPTA and major transit agencies around the U.S. are fighting for more public funding as they struggle with rising costs and lagging ridership.

In its report, the NTSB was critical of SEPTA’s maintenance and operating practices.

That, combined with the outdated design of the Silverliner IV railcars, “represents an immediate and unacceptable safety risk because of the incidence and severity of electrical fires that can spread to occupied compartments,” the NTSB said.

The Silverliner IV rail cars represent about two-thirds of SEPTA’s regional rail fleet and date back to the mid-1970s. They are SEPTA’s oldest rail cars, the agency said.

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