by Patrick Boylan
https://whyy.org/articles/septa-spends- ... kly+2/6/20
And if there are too many cars out of service to meet day to day operations is it too unreasonable to defer seat reconfiguration?
And maybe let's hope Kawasaki's still in business and gets better consideration when SEPTA eventually gets new cars, considering how much better their trolleys and Broad Street cars have fared than any other railcars SEPTA's gotten.
Cracking steel has plagued El cars since at least 2017 when about 90 of the 1990s-era cars were pulled off the route for emergency welding work. But now all 218 cars in the fleet will need a more permanent fix, even those that received repair work three years ago.I too am amazed that they have only 138 out of 218 cars in service. I'm not sure why the spokesman Busch said "more than 30%", why couldn't he have said 36% or 37% or 36.5% which are much closer to the 138 out of 218?
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SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch
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said that SEPTA needs all of its 138 operational M-4 cars to run the line at rush hour, but more than 30% of the entire MFL fleet is out for either steel beam repairs, regularly scheduled five-year overhauls, seat reconfiguration or other types of maintenance.
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retired University of Pennsylvania transit professor Vukan Vuchic
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“This is unusual, that you would only have 138 out of 218 cars in service,”
And if there are too many cars out of service to meet day to day operations is it too unreasonable to defer seat reconfiguration?
And maybe let's hope Kawasaki's still in business and gets better consideration when SEPTA eventually gets new cars, considering how much better their trolleys and Broad Street cars have fared than any other railcars SEPTA's gotten.