Regional Rail

The president of the Transport Workers' Union said the union would call for the breakup of SEPTA if a plan to cut transit fares by at least 10 cents in Philadelphia is rejected. Roger Tauss, president of TWU Local 234, which represents drivers and mechanics, presented a plan yesterday to shift $38.4 million in subsidies from the commuter rail system to the city transit division. He said the shift would provide for increased pension benefits for 5,000 TWU members and allow for a fare decrease.

WHEN SEPTA's new Silverliner V made its maiden voyage last October, taking reporters and a few startled Regional Rail riders on the five-stop run between Suburban Station and Cynwyd, it had that new railcar smell emanating from plush, blue vinyl seats, that magic-carpet ride and that seductive bedroom voice announcing SEPTA stations as if they were topless joints. The "Little Silverliner that Could" - three railcars from Hyundai Rotem's South Korea factory - held the promise that, as soon as SEPTA put 117 more into service, Regional Rail riders could blow a goodbye kiss to the butt-busting battalion of Silverliner IIs and IIIs, built during the '60s, when Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney were young.

All SEPTA regional rail lines will be working Wednesday, operating from the normal start of service in the morning on a weekday schedule, SEPTA announced Tuesday evening. Meanwhile, PATCO announced that service resumed at 6 p.m. tonight, with trains departing every half hour. Amtrak was to resume most service in the area Wednesday, though New York City service remains suspended because of tunnel flooding. NJ Transit said it would resume limited bus service Wednesday in Camden.

Some Regional Rail riders are about to get a taste of what they can expect two years from now when repairs begin on 25 old and crumbling rail bridges in one of the most significant projects ever at SEPTA: Disruption. For the next five Sundays beginning today, SEPTA riders on the R2 Warminster, R3 West Trenton and R5 Lansdale-Doylestown lines will be bused between the Jenkintown and Wayne Junction stations to allow for construction of a new transportation center at Fern Rock.

As a strike deadline looms next month for SEPTA bus, subway, and trolley operators, the transit agency will rely on two labor lawyers from a major Center City firm to help negotiate a new contract. When Regional Rail workers file injured-on-the-job claims, SEPTA turns to a small wife-and-husband Philadelphia firm to handle the cases. When contract disputes arise with contractors rebuilding the Market Street Elevated line in West Philadelphia, SEPTA hires a 10-lawyer practice to deal with them.

Now that SEPTA has finally received most of its 120 new Silverliner V rail cars, the transit agency faces another major issue: when to replace the cars' aging predecessors, the 231 Silverliner IVs that form the bulk of the Regional Rail fleet. Those Silverliner IVs are 36 to 38 years old, about the same age that their forerunners were back in 2006 when SEPTA ordered the new cars to replace them. But SEPTA has no money for more rail cars to replace anthe Silverliner IVs - or almost anything else - so riders can expect to grow old with the existing fleet.

SEPTA regular Laura Herbine of Lansdale noticed the change on all the electronic boards at Suburban Station Sunday. They named the Regional Rail lines by destination only, without the usual "R" and number, such as R3 or R4. "For someone like me who's done this all my life, it's not that big of a difference," Herbine, 22, said as she boarded the 12:20 p.m. former R5 train to Lansdale/Doylestown with friends Amy Vinikoor, 40, and Lynette Melrath, 42,...

A momentary power outage yesterday led to temporary suspension of all of SEPTA's regional rail lines into and out of Center City and to evening rush- hour havoc. Trains were running 30 to 75 minutes late on SEPTA's seven regional rail lines, as thousands of commuters attempted to make their way home. "This rates right up there with the best of them," said Bill Cantwell, stationmaster at Suburban Station, adding, "We've had our problems. " No one was around who disagreed.

SEPTA's board yesterday approved plans to restructure work on the Frankford Elevated Reconstruction Project, the authority's largest current capital project, to reduce short-term costs and lengthen the duration of the work. The changes have been approved by the project's main funding source, the U.S. Urban Mass Transportation Administration, which had initially expressed reservations about drawing out the work beyond the scheduled 1993 completion date. Only a small portion of the 66-year-old structure has been rebuilt - most of the distance between the Spring Garden and Berks Street stations.

A North Philadelphia community group yesterday filed suit in federal court against SEPTA, accusing the transit authority of racial discrimination by providing the mostly white suburban ridership with greater fare subsidies than it does the city's largely black ridership. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Committee for a Better North Philadelphia Inc., came a week after the city's Transit Workers Union released a study condemning SEPTA for the same alleged discriminatory practices.