SEPTA will reveal more details on their plans for the days and weeks after July 4th during a press conference Sunday at 2 p.m.
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Mitchell said it will likely take weeks, possibly months until the SEPTA regional rail schedules are back to normal.
SEPTA officials inspected more than 100 cars and discovered that only five did not have any cracks in that part of the vehicle.
The cars, delivered to the transit agency by the South Korean manufacturer Hyundai Rotem between 2010 and 2013, are under warranty, he said. He said the cracks are a “serious safety” concern.
But “even an interim fix will take considerable time”, Knueppel said. “Car shortages will persist at least through July and August”.
Knueppel said the issues involving cracks in the cars’ 350-pound equalizer beams have been reported to the Federal Railroad Adminstration, the U.S. Department of Transportation and PennDOT.
SEPTA maintenance personnel check an equalizer bar on a Silverliner V wheel assembly for signs of metal fatigue. SEPTA is also in talks with Amtrak and New Jersey Transit about borrowing trainsets or adding service to plug the Regional Rail service hole. “What we’ve been told by SEPTA is they’re going to start with a modified Saturday schedule”. Knueppel urged customers to check with the agency’s website, www.septa.org, on Monday. “We’re asking our members and other riders to travel before or after the main rush hour so that the crowds on the rush hour trains will be mitigated and you can handle as many people as possible”.
SEPTA also plans to bolster service on the Market-Frankford, Broad Street, Norristown High-Speed line and Media-Sharon Hill trolley lines, and is working with the city and school district to increase parking along those lines, for example at nearby schools where students are out for the summer.
Passengers who have purchased weekly or monthly TrailPasses will be able to turn them in for partial credit. “We’re doing things to try to heal the system as much as we can”, Knueppel said. Knueppel said riders should hang onto their passes until details about how the credit will be handled are released.
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Knueppel described the situation as “all hands on deck” for SEPTA and asked for riders’ patience while the fixes are made.
