PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Action News got an inside look at the work being done at the Overbrook Maintenance Facility, one of four Regional Rail shops within the SEPTA system that is performing intense inspections on the Silverliner IV fleet.
After a string of fires on Regional Rail trains this year, SEPTA is now following strict federal orders to complete so-called “enhanced” safety inspections on all 225 of its Silverliner IV cars within 30 days.
It’s tedious work, requiring additional training.
RELATED: NTSB issues urgent safety warning to SEPTA over fire risks involving Silverliner IV railcars
“We’re having other people who normally don’t do the inspection, do the inspection, so that allows us to want to have a different set of eyes on the car,” Greg Buzby, SEPTA’s manager of Regional Rail vehicle engineering, said.
“So it’s been a little slow going to get started. We’re probably around 10 or 12 cars through at this point,” said SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer.
But without identifying a root cause of the fires — a task both the NTSB and SEPTA have struggled with — SEPTA officials say this problem won’t go away after a month of inspections.
“We have to do these enhanced inspections, probably for the remainder of the time we hold these cars,” Sauer said. “So this probably is our new reality, that we’re just going to have to find a way to get these cars through this inspection process more often.”
RELATED: SEPTA riders deal with delayed, overcrowded trains amid safety inspections following NTSB report
The long-term solution is to replace the entire fleet, but the money just isn’t there right now. SEPTA estimates the procurement to cost about $2 billion. And it would take about a decade.
The department is currently looking at cheaper, quicker alternatives, such as buying or leasing cars from another carrier.
“We’re going to try and get this fleet as reliable as we can, so that customers don’t have to expect 10 years of what they’re seeing this week. We have to get it better than what it is, so we’re going to look at every avenue to repair and make this fleet reliable for the duration that we need to use it, and look for options on how we can replace the fleet as quickly as we can,” Sauer said.
Governor Josh Shapiro was asked about the issue at a separate event on Thursday.
“I can tell you that I am working closely with SEPTA to figure out a solution to this. I will not leave them hanging,” Shapiro said.
SEPTA officials also tell us they are urging engineers to call in everything, no matter how small the issue may be. And that heightened sensitivity is leading to even more cars getting pulled out of service.
Sauer says he knows it’s been a rough week for riders, but as staff get more efficient with the inspections, service should improve and get more predictable. He says the delays come at the cost of ensuring the trains are 100% safe.
“We’re not going to let anything get out there that isn’t 100% safe, which is exactly why you’re seeing the car shortages you’re seeing. We’re not going to risk something bad happening in the interest of making sure we get service out.”
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