(The following appeared on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on March 3, 2010.)
PHILADELPHIA — One of SEPTA’s new Silverliner V Regional Rail cars made its first trip in Philadelphia today, but it went by road, not rail.
The pilot car, loaded on the back of a flatbed trailer, was hauled up Roosevelt Boulevard this morning en route to SEPTA’s Roberts Yard in Germantown for inspection and testing.
Three completely outfitted pilot cars arrived Sunday from South Korea via ship and were unloaded at the Packer Marine Terminal in South Philadelphia along with nine bare car shells.
The completed cars will undergo a series of tests for the next three months and if all goes well they could be in service by late summer.
The cars cost $2.1 million each and 120 have been ordered to replace rolling stock that is over 40 years old.