Railroad Forums 

  • Future of Septa Regional Rail Fleet

  • Discussion relating to Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (Philadelphia Metro Area). Official web site can be found here: www.septa.com. Also including discussion related to the PATCO Speedline rapid transit operated by Delaware River Port Authority. Official web site can be found here: http://www.ridepatco.org/.
Discussion relating to Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (Philadelphia Metro Area). Official web site can be found here: www.septa.com. Also including discussion related to the PATCO Speedline rapid transit operated by Delaware River Port Authority. Official web site can be found here: http://www.ridepatco.org/.

Moderator: AlexC

 #1605975  by Silverliner5
 
rcthompson04 wrote: Sun Sep 04, 2022 8:01 am The Metro North M8s would be a good starting point, but would require modifications for low level boarding and removal of the third rail.
The M8s came out in 2010 and I think it would be better to use a different design or vehicle than those
 #1606045  by rcthompson04
 
SEPTA does best when they let someone else do the hard work testing the bugs out of things then buying after the fact. There are no other single level EMUs of recent vintage other than the Silverliner Vs and nobody thinks Hyundai and SEPTA want to do another deal even though I like them as a rider.
 #1606054  by ExCon90
 
Speaking of that, does anybody know what Denver's experience has been with the Rotem cars? I've seen a lot about crossing circuits, but nothing much about the cars -- how do the passengers (and the maintenance forces) feel about them?
 #1607869  by ElectricTraction
 
rcthompson04 wrote: Sun Sep 04, 2022 8:01 amThe Metro North M8s would be a good starting point, but would require modifications for low level boarding and removal of the third rail.
The M-8s are amazing cars and they've been great for NY and CT, but they are purpose-built highly bespoke designs for running between 60hz catenary and 3rd rail. They are overweight, overly complex, and overly expensive to do literally anything else except for debatably maybe other services radiating off of the New Haven Line like Shore Line East just for the sake of fleet commonality (although those had their third rail shoes removed due to a weird clearance issue in East Haven, so those cars can no longer go into NYC without re-installation of their shoes).

Further, the new FRA standards allow for lighter and more cost effective rail cars to be built compared to the M-8 and M-9 designs.

But hey, at least they have basic accommodations for human passengers like bathrooms unlike the StupidLiners....
 #1607882  by Silverliner5
 
They are great and all but I remember someone from NJT was thinking of using one for the Dinky Line but it seems it hasn't even gotten further in, can SEPTA at least buy an EMU like the ones I posted from a couple of pages on this thread? I know for sure that the Hankyu 1000 Series would be the best one for septa and they can pretty much do a redesign for their use on Regional Rail I just wanted to see some Japanese EMUs here instead of everyone getting the same one that is made for America only
 #1607914  by RandallW
 
The SilverLiner V, M8, and M9 are all built and designed by Japanese railway manufacturers with primary construction in USA. I'd be surprised if they didn't start with a Japanese design as the basis for these cars, which would imply that you see the results of modifying an existing Japanese EMU design to meet FRA requirements (or at least the FRA requirements at the time of design).
 #1607925  by MACTRAXX
 
RW - You need to do some more research to get your rail car builder comments right...
Yes - The M8 and M9 cars were built by Kawasaki ("Let the Good Times Roll")...Remember Kawasaki motorcycles?
The Silverliner Five cars were built by Hyundai Rotem - which is based in Seoul, South Korea...
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Rotem

What SEPTA needs is a 180 to 200 car order of a new Silverliner Six fleet to replace the aging S4 MU car fleet that is
now 46-47-48 years old at this time (1974-75-76) that is still the backbone of the SEPTA RRD fleet. The new CRRC
multilevel cars will supplement the single level push-pull cars meaning that slightly less new MU cars would be
needed to replace 230 S4 cars. With SEPTA's mix of high and low level platforms the ability to serve both will be
necessary...MU cars offer more flexibility to SEPTA's electrified RRD system than locomotive (ACS-64) hauled
consists will especially on shorter branches with stations in close proximity to one another...MACTRAXX
 #1607931  by scratchyX1
 
The thing to do is look for other regions who also need EMUs, and place an order with a more or less standard design.
Which wouldn't require a crew person for low platforms.
 #1607962  by Silverliner5
 
Another reason to why septa should buy this kind of units and I think I remembered from a friend that he told me that most silverliner 4s (the worst and older ones) will be scrapped after when all the bilevel coaches arrive from CRRC since bilevel coaches have more space in them
 #1607977  by ElectricTraction
 
scratchyX1 wrote: Fri Oct 07, 2022 11:43 am The thing to do is look for other regions who also need EMUs, and place an order with a more or less standard design.
Which wouldn't require a crew person for low platforms.
Exactly. An EMU capable of 11kV/25, 12.5kV/60, and 25kV/60 should be able to serve various parts of MARC, SEPTA, RTD, NJT, CDOT, MN (Penn), and MBTA.

Unless the capacity is absolutely necessary (basically if you're going through the North River Tunnels), then multi-level cars are the wrong solution, as they are slower to board and disembark. All high-level platforms and single-level cars, especially EMUs, are the most efficient way to do things in most cases.
 #1607991  by MACTRAXX
 
Silverliner5 wrote:Another reason to why septa should buy this kind of units and I think I remembered from a friend that he told me that most silverliner 4s (the worst and older ones) will be scrapped after when all the bilevel coaches arrive from CRRC since bilevel coaches have more space in them
S5 **WRONG**...
There may be a FEW Silverliner Four cars "culled from the herd" that have become "hangar queens" that may be
retired and used as parts sources to keep other cars in the fleet rolling...The CRRC cars are only going to be used
on routes that are long enough to warrant push-pull trains: Paoli/Thorndale, Wilmington/Newark, West Trenton,
Trenton and Media/Wawa...and most likely during weekday peak hours only the same as the current P/P fleet...

SEPTA RRD is NOT going to make the critical mistake and retire what is still now the backbone of the RRD fleet...
44 CRRC multilevel cars is NOT going to come anywhere close to replacing 230 S4 MU cars...MACTRAXX
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