Federal safety board tells Philadelphia's mass transit agency to shelve railcars implicated in fires

Source: AP

Updated 6:49 PM EDT, October 1, 2025


HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Federal transportation safety officials told Philadelphia’s mass transit agency this week that it should shelve an aging electric railcar model that is heavily used in its regional rail fleet until it figures out how to stop them from catching fire.

The recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board came after it investigated five fires this year involving the Silverliner IV passenger railcars used by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA.

In addition to suspending operation of the Silverliner IV fleet until it can fix the cause, the agency said SEPTA should fast-track the replacement of the Silverliner IV fleet or retrofit cars to meet modern fire safety standards and add systems to give the train crew detailed information on when dynamic brakes or other electrical systems aren’t functioning normally.

All five fires forced everyone aboard to evacuate — in one case, as many as 350 passengers — with a few minor injuries reported. One railcar was involved in two of the fires, and two other railcars were destroyed, the NTSB said.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/philadelphia-commuter-train-fire-ntsb-silverliner-septa-bb538416070a10e72bf0db42a36a6648

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I remember when those train cars were first brought in. I had been using the trains since 1969 to go to middle & junior high when the old PRR lines merged to become Penn Central and that got rolled into the regional "SEPTA". We called them "the new trains".