SEPTA buys 24 used rail cars from Montreal. Council's Silverliner IV hearing, approved a year ago, never happened

SEPTA has bought 24 used Regional Rail cars from Montreal's commuter rail system, Exo, for $8.58 million, the Inquirer reported. The agency expects them in service early next year.

For riders, that means longer trains and, SEPTA hopes, fewer crowded cars and bypassed stations. "Some extra capacity, more room," General Manager Scott A. Sauer told the paper.

What SEPTA bought

According to the Inquirer:

• The cars are Bombardier Comet IIs built in 1988 and 1989, refurbished more than a decade ago and then stored for several years. SEPTA also got 75 pallets of spare parts.
• Eight are cab cars, which let an engineer run a train from the rear while a locomotive pushes. SEPTA has only 10 now. The other 16 are coaches holding about 140 people each.
• SEPTA's push-pull fleet will grow 53%, from 45 to 69 cars.
• Work at SEPTA's Frazer shop includes cutting doors to fit high and low platforms, replacing French-language signs, meeting federal safety standards, and installing Positive Train Control.

Greg Buzby, SEPTA's chief officer for rail equipment engineering and maintenance, called the cars "in great shape," the paper reported.

Why SEPTA needed them

The workhorse of Regional Rail is the Silverliner IV, now at least 50 years old. After five caught fire in 2025, the Federal Railroad Administration ordered SEPTA in October 2025 to inspect and repair all 223, the Inquirer reported. Riders faced months of canceled trips, delays and short, crowded trains. SEPTA plans to award a roughly $2 billion contract for new Silverliner VI cars early next year, and the first would take about a decade to arrive, the paper said. The Montreal cars are meant to bridge that gap.

What our records add

Council moved to investigate the Silverliner IV problems last fall, but the hearing never took place.

• Resolution 250880. The resolution, from 6th District Councilmember Mike Driscoll, authorizes the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities to hold hearings investigating the Silverliner IV fleet.
• Sponsors. Driscoll, Jeffery Young Jr., Mark Squilla, and at-large members Jim Harrity, Nicolas O'Rourke and Nina Ahmad.
• 385 days in committee. Council adopted and referred it Oct. 9, 2025. Our records show no hearing since.
• Other SEPTA hearings did happen. The same committee held its hearing on student SEPTA fares Oct. 6, more than five months after Resolution 260441 authorized it. Joint hearings on youth safety on SEPTA were authorized in June by Resolution 260652.
• Council's money for transit. Council's main transit-funding item now is O'Rourke's scaled-back Transit Access Fund bill, 260892, introduced Oct. 22. It would pay for fare programs like Zero Fare and SEPTA Key Advantage, not rail cars. We covered it here.

Council does not vote on SEPTA's equipment purchases. Our records show no Council action on the Montreal cars.

What's next

The Comet IIs should start carrying riders early next year. SEPTA's Silverliner VI contract award is expected in the first quarter of 2027. A hearing under Resolution 250880 can still be scheduled by the committee chair at any time. It would appear on our meetings calendar.