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Public Transit Nor’easter Lands in City of Brotherly Love

With the Washington Metro, NYC Transit, and Boston’s T all plagued by delays, equipment failures, and cost overruns, the question wasn’t whether another city would develop problems, but which one it would be. Philadelphia seems to have been granted the honors, the New York Times reports:

Commuters here faced delays and crowded trains Tuesday after a third of regional rail cars were abruptly pulled out of service over the weekend when a major defect was discovered in part of the fleet.

Officials at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority said inspectors had found cracks in the suspension systems of most of the commuter railroad’s relatively new Silverliner V cars. The repairs could take weeks — a signal that the misery may not end before the Democratic National Convention here later this month.

The suspension systems were still under warranty, and Hyundai Rotem, the rail car manufacturer, is working to address the problems, the transit agency said. Officials at Hyundai Rotem could not be reached for comment.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is now looking into borrowing train sets from other agencies—perhaps Amtrak or New Jersey Transit—so that it can operate a semi-functional service. [...]