Tag: septa

SEPTA‘s Regional Rail express trains are set to return to regularly scheduled service on Monday after several months of significant disruptions due to federally mandated inspections.

Riders of the Regional Rail system have been dealing cancelations, overcrowded railcars and a suspension of many express lines since Oct. 1, 2025, when the federal government ordered SEPTA to inspect all 223 of their Silverliner IV rail cars following a report on multiple fires involving the trains.

Express trains had already returned for the evening rush, but now they will make their full return for riders, including for the morning rush.

SEPTA said riders can look at their normal schedules for train times.

For anyone planning to rely on mass transportation to get to Sunday’s Eagles Wild Card game, SEPTA will be adding extra service to the Broad Street Line during the day.

In a statement, SEPTA officials said that, for Jan. 11, 2026, SEPTA will have regularly scheduled trains along the Broad Street Line running every eight minutes while there will also be a Sports Express service before and after the 4:30 p.m. game.

Also, before the game, SEPTA officials said, the mass transit provider will be running Sports Express trains from the Fern Rock Transit Center to the NRG Station at the South Philly Sports Complex every ten minutes from noon through 4:30 p.m.

Following the game, SEPTA will run 10 Sports Express trains out of NRG station, along with regular local service.

SEPTA officials noted that fans can connect to the Broad Street Line from bus routes and there is a free transfer to the Broad Street Line from the Market-Frankford Line at City Hall station in Center City Philadelphia.

The Broad Street Line is also a short walk for anyone who takes Regional Rail into Suburban Station, as well.

SEPTA officials also said that riders coming from South Jersey can also access the Broad Street Line from the PATCO High Speed Line.

For more information on Sunday’s train schedule, visit SEPTA.org.

The City of Philadelphia is ready to celebrate the end of 2025 and kick off a year’s worth of celebrations for America’s 250th birthday in the coming year.

But, with road closures all throughout the city due to the upcoming events, SEPTA may be the best way to commute around the city on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

And, SEPTA officials have announced special schedules for the year end celebrations.

SEPTA’s Regional Rail trains will operate on a weekday schedule with special late-night service on New Year’s Eve. The added service will occur on the following lines:

• Chestnut Hill East Line
• Fox Chase Line
• Lansdale/Doylestown Line
• Manayunk/Norristown Line
• Media/Wawa Line
• Paoli/Thorndale Line (to Malvern Station only)
• Trenton Line
• Warminster Line
• West Trenton Line
• Wilmington/Newark Line (to Marcus Hook Station only)

As for subways, all of SEPTA’s Metro lines will operate on a weekday schedule while trains on the Broad Street and Market-Frankford lines will operate before and after the New Year’s Eve fireworks at Penn’s Landing with late night trains available.

Select bus routes will operate on a modified weekday schedule which you can find here while all other bus routes will run weekday levels of service with no school trips.

The following bus routes will also be detoured on New Year’s Eve starting at 8:15 a.m. on 15th Street between JFK Boulevard and Chestnut Street due to preparations for the Mummers Parade: 4, 16, 17, 27, 31, 32, 33, 38, 44, 48, 62, 124, 125, B1 Owl and L1 Owl.

Then on New Year’s Day, Regional Rail, Metro and buses will operate on a Sunday schedule while Bus Route 204 will not run.

Getting to New Year’s Eve events

SEPTA officials said, in a statement that, the Visit PA New Year’s Eve Fireworks on the Waterfront will feature two shows — one at 6 p.m. and the second at midnight, over the Delaware River.

To avoid traffic, SEPTA says those looking to participate in the celebrations should take the [L] Market-Frankford Line to 2nd Street Station or Bus Routes 5, 12, 17, 21, 25, 33 or 42.

Find specific New Year’s Eve train times for each Regional Rail line. Please consult regular schedules for other information such as earlier trains arriving in Center City, fare zones and wheelchair accessibility. 

New Year’s Day schedules 

On New Year’s Day, Regional Rail, Metro and buses operate on a Sunday schedule, SEPTA officials said.   

However, officials noted that bus route 204 will not run on New Year’s Day. 

For more information on SEPTA’s schedules for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, click here.

Several SEPTA Regional Rail lines are suspended after a woman was struck and killed on the tracks at the Melrose Park station, a SEPTA official told NBC10.

The incident, which occurred at around 3:20 p.m. on Saturday, is under investigation by law enforcement.

The Doylestown, Warminster and West Trenton lines are all suspended as they are unable to pass the Melrose Park station due to the incident, and shuttle buses will be deployed by SEPTA until the investigation is completed.

Beyond the cancellations that SEPTA riders have been faced with since the start of the week, on Thursday morning commuters across the city saw additional delays as “signal issues” led to a slowdown across its SEPTA’s Regional Rail system.

The mass transit provider posted about the issues on social media at about 5:13 a.m. on Thursday.

Airport,Chestnut Hill East,Chestnut Hill West,Fox Chase,Doylestown,Media,Norristown,Thorndale,Trenton,Warminster,Newark,West Trenton: Expect delays of up to 30 minutes as we address signal issues affecting service in the Center City area.

— SEPTA (@SEPTA) November 13, 2025

In the post, SEPTA officials said the signal issues impact: “Airport, Chestnut Hill East, Chestnut Hill West, Fox Chase, Doylestown, Media, Norristown, Thorndale, Trenton, Warminster, Newark, West Trenton.”

Officials also said that riders should “expect delays of up to 30 minutes as we address signal issues affecting service in the Center City area.”

But, already at about 5:30 a.m., some lines were seeing delays of over an hour while other trains were cancelled outright.

Trenton: Train #9701 going to Trenton is operating 73 minutes late. Last at Jefferson.

— SEPTA (@SEPTA) November 13, 2025

Airport: Inbound train #402, scheduled to depart the Airport at 5:07 a.m., is canceled due to earlier signal issues.

— SEPTA (@SEPTA) November 13, 2025

As of 5:51 a.m., SEPTA said the signal issues had been addressed.

But, “trains are operating with significant residual delays.”

SEPTA said that riders should check the status of their train on septa.org or the SEPTA app.

This is a breaking news story. It will be updated as new information becomes available.

SEPTA was granted a two week extension in order to inspect all of their Silverliner IV train cars, according to the transit agency.

As of Friday morning, SEPTA officials reported that their inspectors have completed inspections on 114 rail cars, about half of the mass transit provider’s fleet of aging Silverliner IV trains.

Also, according to SEPTA, 48 Silverliner IV trains have been returned to service so far.

At its current inspection speed, SEPTA said, workers are inspecting eight cars per day. 

With the granted extension, SEPTA now has two weeks, until Nov. 14, to complete the rest of the inspections.

SEPTA has been working all month to inspect its fleet of Silverliner IV trains after an NTSB investigation called for the mass transit provider to suspend the operation of the entire Silverliner IV fleet until they determine the exact causes of recent train fires.

Since the start of the year, there have been five fires on SEPTA Silverliner IV trains.

These trains are the oldest that SEPTA runs on a regular basis, entering service between 1974 and 1976.

SEPTA will be able to tap into capital assistance funds in order to continue to run daily operations unabated thanks to a new approval from the administration of Pa. Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.

On Monday, Shapiro’s office announced that the governor has directed Mike Carroll, the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to approve of SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer’s request to use up to $394 million in capital assistance funds for daily operations.

The move comes after Sauer requested funds last week in order to “preserve existing service and avoid planned service cuts for the next two years.”

Late last week, a judge ordered SEPTA to rollback plans for service cuts — but, the mass transit provider could still move forward with a plan to raise fares — amid a lawsuit brought forward that seeks to undo service cuts that were put in place earlier this year.

As SEPTA is now permitted to tap into this funding to address a $213 million budget deficit, Shapiro’s office said the governor has long supported adding funds to mass transit providers throughout the state.

His — still unapproved — budget plan for the state includes a $292 million for mass transit efforts statewide and, Shapiro’s office said, the proposed budget would grow mass transit funding to $1.5 billion over five years.

In his letter to SEPTA, PennDOT’s Carroll argues that that a State Senate approved plan would fail to meet the needs of mass transit providers and wouldn’t provide a long-term solution to funding issues.

A previously presented Democratic-backed transit funding bill was not approved by the Senate.

Meanwhile, a Republican-supported funding plan that would have used money from the Public Transportation Trust Fund (PTTF) passed the Senate but was not approved by a House Committee.

“First, it would have provided a fraction of the funding that the Governor proposed as part of his proposal to provide new funding for system operations. Second, it would have required these systems to utilize their capital funding over two fiscal years to fill the gap without a revenue source to replace the lost funding they are already relying on for capital projects,” wrote Carroll in his letter. “Third, it would have taken funding away from capital projects already underway, thereby compromising the safety and efficiency of the transit system. Fourth, this Senate-passed bill would have only provided a temporary fix, at a time when systems are seeking assurance that the Commonwealth can provide long term sustainability to their operations. Fifth and most concerningly, this bill would have taken existing resources out of the PTTF, in the amount of $419 million, and sent them to the Motor License Fund for road paving projects. While PennDOT and the Shapiro Administration support funding for road repair projects and have allocated significant resources to that work, we do not believe utilizing mass transit funding for such purposes is sound public policy.”

Now, SEPTA will be permitted to use up to $394 million of the mass transit provider’s capitol allowance allocation for 2025-26, that has yet to be obligated. This isn’t funding that has been previously committed to other initiatives, Shapiro’s office said.

This move will not use PTTF dollars that are already committed to other initiatives, Shapiro’s office said.

As a condition of this approval, Shapiro’s office said that the governor has instructed SEPTA to continue to address “structural challenges” and report to PennDOT every 120 days with details on steps take and progress made to increase efficiencies within SEPTA’s system.

After a three month suspension, SEPTA’s Chestnut Hill East line will reopen Monday, Sept. 8 for limited service.

The route will service train riders between the Chestnut Hill East and Wayne Junction stations starting at 5 a.m. Monday.

To travel between Chestnut Hill East and Center City, riders must transfer at Wayne Junction Station.

The line has been shut down since June, when SEPTA began repairing five bridges along the Chestnut Hill East line.

Andrew Busch, a spokesperson for SEPTA, said shuttle buses will be used between Chestnut Hill East and Wayne Junction when the line reopens Monday.

Busch said the partial shuttle bussing plan will remain in place this upcoming week while some items on the bridge rehabilitation project are finished before trains are expected to return on the full line next week.

The Chestnut Hill East line suspension took effect before the systemwide SEPTA cuts were implemented on August 24.

The transit agency faces a $213 million budget deficit for the 2026 fiscal year, while transportation remains in limbo.

The Pennsylvania legislature has not reached a budget agreement, which was due July 1.

Due to station improvements and parking lot construction at Chestnut Hill East Station, SEPTA is reminding riders that only 10 parking spaces (including 1 ADA spot) will be available beginning Sept. 8 at the Chestnut Hill east location.