Month: June 2012

Amdist a large railfan turnout last night the final two older Sivlerliners (Budd 9010 and St. Louis Car 235) ran their last runs.  They operated on the last Cynwyd run of the day – 1091 – and then deadheaded back to town as D6092 with many of the railfans still on board returning to Center City.  The train made a special run to Market East for a final photoshoot before returning to 30th Street and then the deadline at Powelton Yard.  Here is a picture of 235 at Cynwyd preparing to leave on D6092 after completing its last ever revenue run.  Photo by Joe Butler. 

This is it!  The final week where the remaining Silverliner II (9010) and Silverliner III (235) will operate in service.  Both cars will hold down all service on the Cynwyd Line this week.  The Philadelphia Inquirer even posted information on their last scheduled trips.

On June 30th, the existing waivers that the FRA gave to SEPTA to allow these cars to continue to operate on the rails will expire.  This may leave a slight car shortage for the summer until the rest of the Hyundai-Rotem Silverliner Vs are delivered and placed into service.

The Silverliner IIs and IIIs definitely had a great run, serving the Pennsylvania Railroad, Reading Railroad, Conrail, and SEPTA over the years.  We definitely apprecitate their service, and anticipate that on Friday, a lot of railfans will be riding the Cynwyd Line to say their final goodbyes.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20120626_Last_runs_for_SEPTA_Silverliner_II___III_rail_cars.html

For those who are not aware Novabus has won the bid to deliver a total of 245 buses for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). This is a four year contract made to Novabus. This is a rather unusual contract – for one not all of the buses will arrive in one year.  The order would be spanned over the course of four years.  Ofcourse this all depends on funding. The first of the Nova artic hybrids are slated to arrive here in December 2012. It has been rumored that the pilot may arrive here as early as  September.  This acquisition cost for these buses is $171 million.

The tentivitve break down of this order is as follows:

• SEPTA has received an grant to buy 160 hybrid buses during the course of the first two years of the contract (FY 2013-FY 2014)-  Tentatively 155 hybrids would be artics, while the other five hybrids give would be 40 footer.
• 155 Novabus hybrid artics – to be divaded and delivered over the course of two years. No idea on the number of amount of artics per year. These buses will replace the 155 Neoplan An460 articulated buses which has been in service since 1999-2000.
• Five out of the 90 forty-foot (40 foot) hybrids would be purchased in the first two years of the contract.  (FY 2013-FY 2014)
• 85 out of the 90 forty-foot (40 foot) diesel buses to be delivered over the course of the last two years (FY 2015-FY 2016). The order for these buses may change from straight diesel buses to hybrids. Tentatively, five buses out of the 90 order of Nova LFS are to be hybrid buses (LFS HEV). All of these buses may be hybirds, but it all depends on whether or not SEPTA will receive additional federal funding for this purchase. Once all said and done, these 90 buses will replace the remaining 91 NABI 416s which are still in service at Comly and Midvale.

 

Please note: Contract orders can and will change, please stay tune for more details and/or corrections being made.

 

http://articles.philly.com/2012-03-16/news/31201854_1_hybrid-buses-septa-board-diesel-buses

Since the retirement of  #9007 last Friday. Up until yesterday, there were three Silverliner IIs and  one Silverliner III which were in service. All four of the remaining Silverliners were since kept in a four-car consist until Thursday. On Thursday, June 21st, the Silverliners 9009-9001 were operating as a two-car consist on the Wilmington/Newark line on train as train #2760. While en route from Newark, both of these cars has suffered mechanical issues – 9009 had a blown transformer while 9001 had lost power to its traction motors.  Both of these cars were sent to Wayne Electric.  Since these issues occurred just one week before  the scheduled retirement of the remaining Silverliner II/IIIs, both 9001 and 9009 has been removed from revenue service. 

Only 235 and 9010 remain in service.

To track the Silverliner II/IIIs

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=72

The Route 34 Subway-Surface trolley operating along Baltimore Avenue will be using buses this summer from June 17th until Labour Day weekend due to trackwork.  Every summer SEPTA buses a subway surface line for track renewal and this year it is the 34’s turn.  For more information see http://septa.org/alert/34.html.