{"id":154841,"date":"2026-04-02T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/154841\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T00:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T00:00:09","slug":"septa-buys-24-cars-from-montreal-to-supplement-aging-regional-rail-fleet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/154841\/","title":{"rendered":"SEPTA buys 24 cars from Montreal to supplement aging Regional Rail fleet"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEPTA<\/a> is buying two dozen rail cars from a Montreal transit agency to increase its Regional Rail capacity, following months of overcrowded and canceled trips as the authority repaired its 50-year-old fleet.<\/p>\n

Exo, the Quebec agency, approved SEPTA\u2019s $8.58 million bid to purchase the coaches, which were manufactured in the late 1980s, officials said Monday.<\/p>\n

It is not clear when the 24 Bombardier cars will hit the tracks. SEPTA representatives said they are working on logistics for transporting the vehicles to Philadelphia, and modifications will also be needed before they are put into service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese additional rail cars will help us enhance reliability and expand capacity for our customers while we work toward replacing our aging Regional Rail fleet,\u201d General Manager Scott Sauer said in a statement.<\/p>\n

In October, federal regulators ordered SEPTA to thoroughly inspect its Silverliner IV vehicles \u2013 223 rail cars built in the mid-1970s that comprise about 60% of the Regional Rail fleet. The mandate came in response to a National Transportation Safety Board report about five train fires over a seven-month period last year.<\/p>\n

Riders experienced major disruptions, as Silverliner IV cars remained in the shop for repairs. The situation has improved<\/a>, and most are back on the track; however, SEPTA said it is committed to \u201can enhanced maintenance program moving forward.”<\/p>\n

To mitigate possible future shortages, the authority has been in talks with public transportation agencies around North America about acquiring cars, officials said. SEPTA in February deployed 10 coaches<\/a> leased from the Maryland Area Rail Commuter system on the West Trenton and Trenton lines.<\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Shapiro distributed nearly $220 million<\/a> to SEPTA in November to address critical infrastructure issues, primarily the Silverliner IV shortage and damaged overhead wires in the Center City trolley tunnel. Of that money, $17 million was earmarked for leasing and buying used commuter rail cars.<\/p>\n

SEPTA has begun the process of procuring a new fleet of Regional Rail vehicles. Authority leaders have projected that the full replacement will take a decade and cost $2 billion.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tSEPTA,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Philadelphia Regional Rail,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t SEPTA train cars,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Regional Rail capacity,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Silverliner IV,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t SEPTA,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Exo,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t commuter rail Philadelphia,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Josh Shapiro,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t public transit funding\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEPTA is buying two dozen rail cars from a Montreal transit agency to increase its Regional Rail capacity,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[70230,70229,33,69,71,70,70226,21077,70228,2618,70227,25995],"class_list":{"0":"post-154841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-commuter-rail-philadelphia","9":"tag-exo","10":"tag-josh-shapiro","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","13":"tag-philadelphia-news","14":"tag-philadelphia-regional-rail","15":"tag-public-transit-funding","16":"tag-regional-rail-capacity","17":"tag-septa","18":"tag-septa-train-cars","19":"tag-silverliner-iv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}