US requires urgent action to address Pennsylvania railcar fire risks

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By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Federal Railroad Administration issued an emergency order on Wednesday requiring the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to immediately move to eliminate fire risks in its fleet of Silverliner IV railcars.

The order follows an urgent safety recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board following a series of five fires since February.

FRA is ordering the railroad authority to implement safety-related actions to prevent the future risk of fires and other malfunctions on its system, which serves millions of riders yearly in the Philadelphia area.

The order does not require the authority to stop using the cars, but mandates emergency mechanical inspections of each Silverliner IV railcar and installation of fire protection circuits at all critical locations on every Silverliner IV.

The NTSB said the outdated design of the railcars and the agency’s maintenance and operating practices represent “an immediate and unacceptable safety risk because of the incidence and severity of electrical fires that can spread to occupied compartments.”

The recommendations stem from the NTSB’s investigation into five fires in the authority’s cars since February. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, known as SEPTA, is the sixth-largest public transit system in the U.S. It provides service to five counties in the Greater Philadelphia area and connects to transit systems in Delaware and New Jersey.

The NTSB called on SEPTA to suspend operation of the Silverliner IV fleet “until the transit agency determines the root causes of fires, develops and implements a plan to address these causes and identifies and corrects the organizational factors that have prevented effective risk mitigations.”

 SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer said the railcars are safe and that the authority has instituted more frequent and thorough inspections.

SEPTA has 225 Silverliner IV railcars that are around 50 years old and represent two-thirds of its regional rail fleet but for financial reasons must keep using the cars.

“We have had to continue to operate these trains long beyond the time they should have been retired. However, we are confident that these trains are safe,” Sauer said, adding SEPTA is using the Silverliner IV less frequently than the rest of the fleet.

   Halting use of the cars would require a two-thirds cut in service and would cost $2 billion but the authority is in dire funding straits, he added.

The cars are some of the oldest in the country, Sauer said, and the agency has developed a comprehensive set of 40 mitigation measures, including additional notifications and safety checks to personnel and audible alarms for fault lights.

“We are confident that we can safely continue service with the Silverliner IV fleet,” Sauer said.

The NTSB cited fires involving the Silverliner IV in Levittown, New Jersey, Paoli, Pennsylvania, as well as incidents in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania on September 23 and Philadelphia on September 25.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Aurora Ellis and David Gregorio)