With the 60 million federal dollars it received previously, PATCO is getting ready to put its first 12 cars into its rehabilitation program in the next 8 to 10 months. Although the total cost of this project will be about 180 million dollars, PATCO states it doesn't need all the money at once, since they will only be taking 12 cars out of service at a time. These cars are being rehabbed to modernize the fleet, as well as for the fact that since Budd and Canadian Vickers are out of business, parts for the fleet are hard to come by. In many cases, they have to build the parts themselves!
On the outside, the cars will be essentially the same, but the inside will be completely different, with a new blue/grey interior and individual high backed seats. Also, the traction motors will be different – perhaps AC traction!
More information about the rehabilitation program (including a copy of the article from the Gloucester Times) can be found here: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=41201&sid=48c329375ffdd6832673ceb821e26ba6