Author: van2025ko

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The first three production units of the Silverliner V order has arrived photo recorded by John A

Due to discontinued funding, the Doylestown rushbus (formerly known as the Doylestown DART) will be discontinued.  Saturday DART, operated by Bucks County Transport will be discontinued as well.  Details here: http://tiny.cc/172sw

Last Sunday just hours before the blizzard came into our areas. Mr. Almeida was brought to the attention by CSX dispatchers. That CSX trains were sent in South Philadelphia to pick up three Silverliner Vs at Rotem. They were so close to make the run; however, the mechanical issues “brake” on the Silverliner Vs cars forced the crews to postpone the delivery of the first three cars. To make matters worst, the weather during the evening hours of Sunday forced the crews hand to postpone the delivery of the first three cars. It is unknown as it stands now when SEPTA will get these first cars but from the looks at it they may have these cars by the beginning of next week. All i have to say is we shall see. Once SEPTA have received these cars, they will undergo at least 8 weeks of testing. When approved and no major flaws are found they should be in service by either late February or early March.

Just to recap, SEPTA is to receieve 120 Silverliner Vs to replace the 68 Silverliner II and IIIs in service. Both the Silverliner II and III has been running on waives issued by the FRA to keep these cars running. However come in 2012 these cars will be unable to operate. Hopefully the worst part of this Silverliner V orders is right behind us. Let’s hope the production will continue smoothly.

Major Changes on the Current Assignments Page( http://www.philadelphiatransitvehicles.info/Current_fleet_Assignments.php ).

With these changes: Callowhill has lost 1/3 of their fleet of NABIS. 5249, 5259-5263 are now assigned to Midvale. Southern has received 5320, 5322-5323, 5325 from Callowhill. Frontier has scrap more of their Eldorado buses and have received more 2004 New Flyers in return. Latest update on 4581, which was remove from service at Frontier a month ago, is that it now the bus is wrapped in the Lucy scheme.

Once again, the Silverliner Vs are delayed again.  The three that were due on December 20th, which would have allowed SEPTA to try to run a 6 car train of Vs, will not make it on time.  In fact, now there is no definite date as to when these cars will be delivered.  With the problems these three cars have had, in addition to the prototypes built in Korea that are running on the system now, this is par for the course.

More details here: http://planphilly.com/news/notebook/septa-misses-another-silverliner-v-deadline

Remember that massive bus reassignment several months ago which robbed Frontier of much of their fleet of Zfers (#5892-up)? Well now they are getting their zfers back with more zfers being reassigned in the future! As been reported on the forums for the past month. SEPTA has started retired the Eldorados assigned to Frontier. So far, to replace these Eldorados, 5890-5892, 5903-5904, 5911-5923, 5928-5929 with 5932 has been reassigned to Frontier. This is the most bizarre assignment because much of the fleet of buses listed above were assign at Frontier only a few months ago and were sent to Comly and Midvale just prior of the Fall 2010 schedule. Now, they are giving these buses back to Frontier with possibly more zfers to come down the road.

Get your last shots of the Eldorados while you still can, it is quite possible that these little bouncy boxes will meet their demise sooner versus later. On a side, but related note, some of the Eldorados, which were removed from Service, has been reassigned to Contract operations. 4552 is now dressed in the Lucy scheme.

A contract to rebuild PATCO’s aging fleet of railcars has finally been award. Alstom of France recently won the $194.2 Million contract to strip there cars down to there bare stainless steel bodies. New interiors, brake and propulsion systems, lighting and messaging systems, and  heating and cooling systems will be installed. The cars will reportedly keep there original wheel assemblies and traction motors. The cars were built in 1968 and 1980 by Budd and Vickers respectively and the project will extend the cars life 25 years. All 120 cars will be rebuilt at Alstom’s Hornell NY facility over a 5 year period!

Article by Daryl Jackson (Philly Transport)

This afternoon at around 1:30, 4571 collided with a Lexus that was heading in the opposite direction.  The accident occured in Norristown by the old Logan Square Shopping Center as 4571 was heading to Norristown TC on route 90.  The Lexus driver was flown to University of Pennsylvania Hospital as 8 passengers on the bus were taken to local hospitals.

Link to the ABC news report: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7814925

On Friday morning, October 29th, SEPTA is holding a press conference/ceremony to announce the start of passenger service for the Silverliner Vs.  This will be held at track 0 in Suburban Station, starting at 9:30 AM.  The train is due to run from Norristown to Center City before the ceremony, but we do not know what train it will run as.  It’s quite likely that this will be an “extra wildcat” train.

Last Saturday, SEPTA held it’s bus roadeo at Cornwall Heights parking lot. During this event, SEPTA introduced two milestone buses.  The first unit, Frankford’s 8411 was the 1000th bus ever produced by New Flyer for SEPTA. The second bus is Southern’s 8450, this is a greater milestone as this is the 30,000th bus which New Flyer ever built.

Photographer: Michael EEEEE Pearson