Plagued by delays, Hyundai has delivered 99 of 120 Silverliner V's to SEPTA, and 90 of those are in revenue service. SEPTA hopes to have all of the cars, purchased for $274 million, by September.
The oldest cars still running are a Silverliner II built in 1963 by the Budd Co. for the Reading Railroad and a Silverliner III built by St. Louis Car Co. for the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1967, according to the Philadelphia chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.
SEPTA and the society gave rail buffs a farewell tour on the old Silverliners last month.
With the new cars and its existing Silverliner IV cars, SEPTA will have a fleet of about 400 cars to carry passengers on its 13 Regional Rail lines. Passengers have faced overcrowding on rush-hour trains for years because of shortages caused by increasing ridership, delays in new car deliveries, and removal of cars for repairs or maintenance.
SEPTA is selling its old Silverliners to a Newark scrap dealer for about $2,300 each.
The last runs for the old Silverliners on Friday will be as Train 1089, leaving Suburban Station at 7:03 p.m., and Train 1091, leaving Suburban at 7:59 p.m.
Contact Paul Nussbaum at 215-854-4587 or pnussbaum@phillynews.com .
