Adtranz

Trolley commuters will directly benefit from a new $23 million signal system that the manufacturer of SEPTA's new Frankford El trains is giving SEPTA to apologize for new trains that are too heavy, and two years late. "The funds from Adtranz are liquidated damage payments to compensate for the late deliveries of its cars, every one more than 1,200 pounds overweight," SEPTA chief engineer Pat Nowakowski said. "Overweight cars require more propulsion power. Late deliveries force us to spend extra dollars to maintain our aging fleet of 35-year-old Budd rail cars.

SEPTA's order of 220 new cars for the Market-Frankford Line, already nine months behind schedule, is now running almost a full year late, and the transit agency's board is worried that the $285 million contract has gone badly awry. "At what point should we, as an authority, say, 'Enough is enough,' " and cancel the order, asked board member Anthony H. Williams. The Market-Frankford is vital to SEPTA's health. It carries 150,000 riders a day and is the keystone of the transit agency because nearly every other route connects with it. The current fleet, built in 1960, is SEPTA's oldest, and the cars lack air conditioning, public address systems and other features long since considered minimal for transit cars.

A failed stress test on the wheel systems of SEPTA's new Market-Frankford Elevated cars will delay to the end of this year the arrival of a pilot test train, SEPTA's board has learned. It will be the second delay for a prototype train that was supposed to be tested here in late 1995. "The [wheel systems] failed a fatigue test, which means the manufacturer must redesign the units, then take three months to retest them," said Pat Nowakowski, SEPTA Assistant General Manager of Operations Support.

The Market-Frankford train rumbles into a station and weary commuters stand, waiting for the doors to open. They stay closed. Another train can't leave the station because the doors won't close. Would you pay $6.2 million to fix balky doors on new subway cars that already cost hundreds of millions? You already have. The difficult doors are just one of the mechanical faults hampering service on the sleek cars serving SEPTA's busiest transit line. The doors, along with potentially catastrophic cracks that have been found in the metal of wheel assemblies under eight subway cars, make SEPTA employees nervous.

In a cavernous factory just north of the Pennsylvania line, the stainless-steel shells of two subway cars sit on lifts above the assembly room floor. Workers climb over the skeletons, cutting here, welding there, already late for a very important date. In an on-time world, the two cars would have been running on Philadelphia's Market-Frankford El more than a month ago - the first arrivals in a modern 220-car fleet designed to ease and speed the ride for the line's 150,000 daily passengers.

The long-delayed delivery date of badly needed new cars for the Market-Frankford Line - the region's most heavily used rail system - has slipped yet another month, SEPTA officials said yesterday. The first two replacement cars for the El's 36-year-old fleet - SEPTA's oldest - were due to have arrived for testing last Christmas. Raymond T. Betler, president of Adtranz, the company building the cars in Elmira, N.Y., said yesterday that they would be in Philadelphia on Dec. 20; the company had recently estimated late November.

For only the fourth time in 90 years - blue moons are frequent by comparison - the Market-Frankford El got a pair of brand-new cars yesterday. Long-suffering riders on SEPTA's most heavily used route will eventually get to taste the improvements offered by the cars, but probably not until the summer. In other words, just about the time air conditioning is really needed on the El, it should finally be available. The two cars delivered yesterday, called a "married pair" because each needs the other in order to function since they share certain parts, will be tested - without passengers - for the next several months.

The SEPTA board yesterday approved an unusual agreement with the manufacturer of its new Market-Frankford rail cars, relinquishing its demand for $23.6 million in damages in return for a high-tech signaling system for the subway-surface trolley routes. Since the transit agency awarded the $258 million contract in 1993 for 220 new rail cars, production has fallen farther and farther behind schedule, leaving the project now about 20 months behind. SEPTA now says that Adtranz, the company building the cars in Elmira, N.Y., owes the agency $16.2 million for missing scheduled delivery dates and $3.5 million for making the vehicles heavier than agreed.

Steering her two young sons onto the ancient train waiting in grimy Frankford Terminal, Darlene Terrey of Port Richmond settles in for another rackety, lurching ride. It isn't always like this. Occasionally, she says, she gets one of the brand-new trains now being delivered to SEPTA to replace the 38-year-old, non-air-conditioned sets that have been the mainstays of the transit system's most heavily used route. "Maybe twice a week," said Terrey, who rides to work five days and usually travels with her children on her off days.

Oh, you can't get to Heaven, No, you can't get to Heaven, On the Frankford El. Cause the Frankford El, Cause the Frankford El, Goes straight to Frankford! - Children's ditty sung in River Ward schoolyards. If you're a Frankford El commuter, you, too, should have a song in your heart, no matter what your age. That's because tomorrow morning a freighter will deliver train bodies, which by Thanksgiving will be the first new cars to roll along Frankford-Market tracks since John F. Kennedy won the White House.

Piles of fruit, bagels and muffins - along with commemorative "Bechtel" mugs in two colors - were shaded under one white canopy, the politicians under another, and a yellow Komatsu backhoe served as a backdrop yesterday for the official groundbreaking festivities for the Southern New Jersey Light Rail Transit System. "Building this line is one more way we are ensuring a bright future for South Jersey," Gov. Whitman told about 250 men and women who sat in white plastic folding chairs or stood on the hot pavement of Delaware Avenue at 10 a.m. to welcome the $604 million project.

The Market-Frankford train rumbles into a station and weary commuters stand, waiting for the doors to open. They stay closed. Another train can't leave the station because the doors won't close. Would you pay $6.2 million to fix balky doors on new subway cars that already cost hundreds of millions? You already have. The difficult doors are just one of the mechanical faults hampering service on the sleek cars serving SEPTA's busiest transit line. The doors, along with potentially catastrophic cracks that have been found in the metal of wheel assemblies under eight subway cars, make SEPTA employees nervous.

Southern New Jersey Rail Group's bid of $615 million to build and operate the proposed Camden-to-Trenton light commuter rail line was the apparent winner yesterday. The construction group's design plans for the 34-mile rail line also won the highest technical evaluation given by New Jersey Transit, making it the likely winner of the contract. The winner is a consortium of Bechtel Infrastructure Corp. of Gaithersburg, Md., and ADtranz of Pittsburgh, which in turn is part of a venture involving Daimler-Benz.

Steering her two young sons onto the ancient train waiting in grimy Frankford Terminal, Darlene Terrey of Port Richmond settles in for another rackety, lurching ride. It isn't always like this. Occasionally, she says, she gets one of the brand-new trains now being delivered to SEPTA to replace the 38-year-old, non-air-conditioned sets that have been the mainstays of the transit system's most heavily used route. "Maybe twice a week," said Terrey, who rides to work five days and usually travels with her children on her off days.

Trolley commuters will directly benefit from a new $23 million signal system that the manufacturer of SEPTA's new Frankford El trains is giving SEPTA to apologize for new trains that are too heavy, and two years late. "The funds from Adtranz are liquidated damage payments to compensate for the late deliveries of its cars, every one more than 1,200 pounds overweight," SEPTA chief engineer Pat Nowakowski said. "Overweight cars require more propulsion power. Late deliveries force us to spend extra dollars to maintain our aging fleet of 35-year-old Budd rail cars.

The SEPTA board yesterday approved an unusual agreement with the manufacturer of its new Market-Frankford rail cars, relinquishing its demand for $23.6 million in damages in return for a high-tech signaling system for the subway-surface trolley routes. Since the transit agency awarded the $258 million contract in 1993 for 220 new rail cars, production has fallen farther and farther behind schedule, leaving the project now about 20 months behind. SEPTA now says that Adtranz, the company building the cars in Elmira, N.Y., owes the agency $16.2 million for missing scheduled delivery dates and $3.5 million for making the vehicles heavier than agreed.

For only the fourth time in 90 years - blue moons are frequent by comparison - the Market-Frankford El got a pair of brand-new cars yesterday. Long-suffering riders on SEPTA's most heavily used route will eventually get to taste the improvements offered by the cars, but probably not until the summer. In other words, just about the time air conditioning is really needed on the El, it should finally be available. The two cars delivered yesterday, called a "married pair" because each needs the other in order to function since they share certain parts, will be tested - without passengers - for the next several months.

The long-delayed delivery date of badly needed new cars for the Market-Frankford Line - the region's most heavily used rail system - has slipped yet another month, SEPTA officials said yesterday. The first two replacement cars for the El's 36-year-old fleet - SEPTA's oldest - were due to have arrived for testing last Christmas. Raymond T. Betler, president of Adtranz, the company building the cars in Elmira, N.Y., said yesterday that they would be in Philadelphia on Dec. 20; the company had recently estimated late November.

A failed stress test on the wheel systems of SEPTA's new Market-Frankford Elevated cars will delay to the end of this year the arrival of a pilot test train, SEPTA's board has learned. It will be the second delay for a prototype train that was supposed to be tested here in late 1995. "The [wheel systems] failed a fatigue test, which means the manufacturer must redesign the units, then take three months to retest them," said Pat Nowakowski, SEPTA Assistant General Manager of Operations Support.

SEPTA's order of 220 new cars for the Market-Frankford Line, already nine months behind schedule, is now running almost a full year late, and the transit agency's board is worried that the $285 million contract has gone badly awry. "At what point should we, as an authority, say, 'Enough is enough,' " and cancel the order, asked board member Anthony H. Williams. The Market-Frankford is vital to SEPTA's health. It carries 150,000 riders a day and is the keystone of the transit agency because nearly every other route connects with it. The current fleet, built in 1960, is SEPTA's oldest, and the cars lack air conditioning, public address systems and other features long since considered minimal for transit cars.