SEPTA won't get new rail cars for months

New SEPTA Regional Rail cars will be at least four months late, delaying relief for riders on the increasingly crowded rail lines, SEPTA officials said yesterday.

SEPTA has granted Rotem USA Corp. an extension until April 2009 to deliver the first three Silverliner V railcars because of steel shortages and the bankruptcy of a communications equipment supplier, said Patrick Nowakowski, chief operations officer.

That will mean delivery of the rest of the 120-car order will also be pushed back at least four months, Nowakowski said. Final delivery of all the railcars is now scheduled for October 2010.

Rotem, a division of South Korean automaker Hyundai Motors Group, and Sojitz Corp., a Japanese company, have formed a consortium to build 120 Silverliner V Regional Rail cars for SEPTA for $274 million.

Rotem was unable to procure enough of the type of steel specified in the SEPTA contract because the U.S. government has cornered the market; it is using the steel for armoring vehicles bound for Iraq, Nowakowski said.

The railcars will be assembled at a South Philadelphia plant from components brought in from around the world. The initial three test cars are being built in South Korea.

At SEPTA's board meeting yesterday, new Chester County representatives were seated. The newly appointed members are Joseph "Skip" Brion, a lawyer who is chairman of the Republican Committee of Chester County, and Kevin Johnson, a member of the county Planning Commission and president of Traffic Planning & Design Inc., of Pottstown.

They replaced Karen L. Martynick and James J. Rohn.