Author: van2025ko

The AEM-7 locomotive on Amtrak Train # 92 (The Silver Star from Miami to New York) caught fire this evening around 7:15 PM in Wilmington.  The locomotive involved was 911.  From the picture on Channel 6’s website (http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news%2Flocal&id=8095963), it appears as though the cab was fully involved.  Smoke was visible coming from the top of the locomotive.  It is believed engine troubles caused the fire.  No injuries were reported.

This morning, at 2:15 AM, a PATCO train caught on fire while in the City Hall, Camden Subway Station.  Smoke filled the station due to a fire in the undercarriage of the car due to a mechanical malfunction.  There was serious track damage too.

For more details, click the link for ABC6’s news story about the incident.

 

To Cast your vote!

http://forums.philadelphiatransitvehicles.info/topic/7272271/1/#new

Citing safety issues, SEPTA announced that the first two seats of each train of Silverliner Vs will be roped off from passengers, sparking a debate as to why SEPTA suddenly came out with this policy. Despite this new rule, riders will still be able to get a good view from the 2nd or 3rd row of seats, and the rear railfan window will still be open.

Read details in this article: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110303_SEPTA__passengers__group_spar_over_seating_on_new_cars.html

This morning, at around 7:30, a Manayunk/Norristown Line train pulled down a half a mile of wire, shutting down service for hours Thursday morning.  Even when service was restored, a very limited PM rush schedule was operated, with service running every two hours on one track.  SEPTA officials blame this incident on the fact that the wires date back to the good old Reading Railroad days, from 1931!

The schedule for Friday’s morning rush hour will be limited as well, with a number of trains cancelled or cut back to Miquon.  SEPTA boosted service on the Norristown High Speed Line to give passengers another option, and will operate shuttle bus service for people needing to connect with trains at Miquon.

This article highlights the details of what happened with the Manayunk/Norristown Line and definitely is a call for more infrastructure funding for the system: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/117364528.html

As if the Manayunk/Norristown Line issue wasn’t enough, a Philly bound Trenton Line train snagged a wire in the Juniata section of Philadelphia (at G and Venango Streets by SHORE interlocking), causing a small brush fire.  The passengers on this train were saved by a New Jersey Transit diesel train.  Otherwise, Trenton Line as well as Chestnut Hill West service was suspended for a while as tracks 3 and 4 were shut down; Amtrak continued to operate on tracks 1 and 2.

Details in this NJ article and on Railroad.net.

If all this wasn’t enough, there were delays on the Lansdale/Doylestown Line due to equipment problems!  Finally, the day came to a close with issues on the Trenton Line AGAIN due to Amtrak signal issues.  This definitely wasn’t one of SEPTA’s better days!

Finally, the first PATCO car was shipped up to Hornell, NY as part of the Alstom contract for the rebuilding of the PATCO fleet.  Car # 247 left Lindenwold Thursday morning by truck with the help of Silk Road Transport.

For pictures, visit: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=76921&start=15

We would like to extend my sincere thanks to Doug Diehl (Redarrowdoug), Michaelbug, and Silverliner_II for their contributions to our photo galleries. As many of the members/lurkers notice within the past several weeks, a bunch of older photos has been uploaded to our gallery.
http://www.philadelphiatransitvehicles.info/multimedia/thumbnails-lastup-0.html

SEPTA has posted the new schedules for its transit routes on its website at http://septa.org/schedules/upcoming.html.  Here are some of the major highlights:

Route 95 Detour Routing:  Due to PennDOT construction of route 23 (River Road) in West Conshohocken, the 95 now runs VIA Gulph Mills Station on it’s way to the Inquirer Building to Swedeland.  The 95 buses will also hop on I-76 between West Conshohocken and Gulph Mills.

Route 97 extension to Chestnut Hill Loop: Most route 97 buses actually interline with the 94, so service will be extended to Chestnut Hill during the daytime hours.  There will still be some trips that short turn in Barren Hill.  Also, the 97 will run via Seven Stars Lane to get to the Metroplex.

Route 103: Service will be taken off of West Chester Pike and Lynn Blvd to serve Overbrook Park and Township Line Road.  Also, Sunday service will run between 69th Street Terminal and 77th and City Aves (Overbrook Park).

Routes 105 & 106:  Route 106 will run with the 105 to Paoli during weekdays.  However, this resulted in some cuts to service to Paoli on the 105.  It’s a bit more confusing, and it seems like casual riders may need to have both the 105 and 106 schedules if they travel west of Radnor.  Also, route 105 will no longer serve Overbrook Park, running on a modified routing to 63rd and Malvern.  In fact, some trips will start at 63rd and Malvern heading to Paoli!

Route 128:  In Levittown, the buses will no longer run on Haines Road and Kenwood Drive due to concerns brought up by Bristol Twp and Tullytown Borough.  Apparently the residents of Kenwood Drive don’t like the buses cutting through their neighborhood on the way to Levittown Town Center.  Therefore, the 128 will remain on Bristol Pike to Levittown Parkway (running right by Levittown-Tullytown Station) and follow the 127 routing through the Town Center.

Route 310: There are some minor routing changes in the Horsham Business Center, taking the Breeze buses onto Witmer Road.  This also removes an ugly left turn from Business Center Drive onto Dresher Road, since the intersection isn’t protected by a traffic light and traffic is horrendous on Dresher Road during rush hour.

For more details on these routes as well as other services, check the website.

SEPTA’s hopes that its board will approve a loan of $250 million through bonds to cover the cost of the Silverliner Vs as well as the Wayne Junction Station rebuilding.  While Wayne Junction was delayed with the cuts in state funding this year, SEPTA is afraid of losing the federal funding for it if they don’t start construction soon. 

They hope to pay the money back over 25 years with grants from the Federal Transit Administration.  Interestingly, this is the first time since the purchase of the M4s that SEPTA has borrowed money, which is pretty good for a transit system.

More details here: http://www.masstransitmag.com/online/printer.jsp?siteSection=3&id=13457

Unbeknownst to TMA Bucks, who had no choice but to discontinue the Doylestown rushbus do to the discontinuance of funding for the line, Bucks County, Bucks County Transport, and Doylestown officials had a meeting to determine what to do to solve this problem.  The result?  The Doylestown DART will be return and be operated by Bucks County Transport.  More details here:

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/the_intelligencer/the_intelligencer_news_details/article/27/2010/december/31/doylestowns-rushbus-service-gets-a-reprieve.html