SEPTA hopes Regional Rail cars rented from Maryland will alleviate overcrowding
As SEPTA works through the fallout of last year's Silverliner IV fires, the Maryland coaches will be in service. Regional Rail schedules also changed to add trips on three lines.
As Train 9710 pulled out of the Trenton Transit Center at 7:25 a.m. Monday, something looked out of place.
Five passenger coaches in the Philadelphia-bound Regional Rail train bore foreign “MARC” logos and orange-and-blue markings, all pulled by a properly labeled SEPTA electric locomotive.
It was the first day of service for 10 coaches rented from Maryland’s commuter railroad to add capacity to SEPTA’s service as it works through the fallout of last year’s Silverliner IV fires.
The substitute cars initially will be running on the Trenton and West Trenton lines, where riders for months have endured packed trains due to a shortage of available 50-year-old Silverliner IVs.
In October, the Federal Railroad Administration ordered SEPTA to inspect and repair all 223 of those cars after five of them caught fire earlier in the year.
The transit agency is paying $2.6 million to lease the new coaches for a year.
SEPTA’s records show it canceled at least 2,544 Regional Rail trips in the last three months of 2025. Delays and skipped stops also have plagued commuters for months.
SEPTA is using its ACS-64 electric locomotives, which it bought in 2019, to pull the MARC coaches and its own fleet of 45 coaches.
Silverliner cars do double duty; they carry passengers and have motors that provide their own locomotion through electricity drawn from overhead wires.
The addition of new cars coincides with new Regional Rail schedules that went into effect Sunday.
SEPTA said in a statement that the schedules will add trips on the Wilmington, Trenton, and Chestnut Hill East lines and increase the frequency of service from Wayne Junction directly to the Philadelphia International Airport on the Airport line.