(The following story by Paul Nussbaum appeared on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on September 11.)
PHILADELPHIA — SEPTA’s vehicle of the future sparkled in a warm sun yesterday, draped in banners and exuding a new-car smell as city, state, corporate and transit officials unveiled a prototype of the Silverliner V.
Since final assembly of the cars will be completed at a new South Philadelphia factory, Mayor Nutter praised them as “not only a better way to get around, but a way to create jobs and economic development” as well.
The first of 120 new Silverliners, purchased for $274 million, can’t arrive soon enough for SEPTA rail passengers, who increasingly have been cramped in standing-room-only commutes. SEPTA rail ridership jumped more than 12 percent in 2008 over the previous year, to a record 35 million riders.
The first cars are expected to be in service in the fall of 2009, assistant general manager Pat Nowakowski said.
The cars are being built by United Transit Systems, a consortium of South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem Co. and Japan’s Sojitz Corp. of America.
Yong-Hoon Lee, president and chief executive of Hyundai Rotem, said he hoped the South Philadelphia factory would also produce cars for many other U.S. buyers and become a fixture in the city.
Lee said, “Philadelphia is the birthplace for our future in the market. . . . We believe the U.S. market is one of the keys to reaching the top of our industry.”
State Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.), who has been a financial champion for SEPTA in the legislature, said the new cars would help boost the region’s transit advantage over other areas.
“Other cities are dying to have this kind of competitive advantage,” Evans said. “It’s really a good thing for the city and the region.”
The new Silverliners will replace 73 railcars that were built for SEPTA in the 1960s. With the retirement of the old cars and the addition of the new ones, SEPTA will have about 400 by 2010, up from the current 348.
The prototype unveiled yesterday gave visitors a glimpse of the future: plastic molded seats, fold-down handicapped seating, mid-car doors, scrolling digital signs to announce stops, and communications links to allow for direct announcements from SEPTA’s control center.
But passengers have some reservations about what the cars don’t have, said Matthew Mitchell of the Delaware Valley Association of Rail Passengers.
Restrooms. Internet access. Two-person-only seating. Cup-holders.
“The new cars are going to be good news for the customers, just not as good as we would have hoped,” said Mitchell. “These cars don’t measure up to what other systems are requiring, but we need them, and we’ll be glad to get them.”
The prototype Silverliner V will be brought to Suburban Station for public examination sometime this fall, SEPTA officials said.