(The following appeared on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on February 23, 2011.)
PHILADELPHIA — With no fanfare, the first of SEPTA’s long-delayed production Silverliner V passenger railcars made their debut Monday.
The two cars were the first of 117 being assembled at a South Philadelphia factory to be placed in revenue service.
Monday, when Cars 803 and 804 were coupled to the three pilot cars to form a five-car train running from Lansdale to Center City, it marked the first paying service for any cars assembled at the Hyundai Rotem plant on Weccacoe Street from car shells delivered from South Korea.
SEPTA ordered 120 Silverliner V cars from Hyundai Rotem in 2006 for $274 million. The total cost, including spare parts and associated training and management, is $330 million.
Production problems – including material delays, design flaws, labor-management issues, and workmanship problems – have put the delivery of the new cars about a year behind schedule.
The new five-car Silverliner V train is scheduled to be in service on four SEPTA lines this week, operating as Train 501 on the Lansdale and Paoli lines, Train 9530 on the Paoli line, Trains 959 and 3256 on the Elwyn line, and Trains 3256 and 6271 on the Norristown line.
The complete schedule of the Silverliner V service for this week is available on the SEPTA website at http://www.septa.org/service/rail.
The full story appears at www.philly.com.