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US urges urgent action on Pennsylvania railcar fire risks

The National Transportation Safety Board urged Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority on Wednesday to take immediate action to eliminate the fire risk in its fleet Silverliner IV Railcars.

The safety board stated that the design and maintenance practices of the agency and their railcars are outdated and pose "an immediate and unacceptable risk due to the severity and frequency of electrical fires which can spread into occupied compartments."

The NTSB investigated five fires that occurred in SEPTA vehicles since February. SEPTA is the sixth largest public transit system in America. It provides service in five counties of the Greater Philadelphia Area and connects with transit systems in Delaware, New Jersey, and Delaware.

The NTSB asked SEPTA for a suspension of operation of its Silverliner IV fleet until the transit agency determined the root causes of the fires. It also called on SEPTA "to develop and implement a plan addressing these causes, and identify and correct the organizational factors which have prevented effective risk reduction."

SEPTA General Director Scott Sauer stated at a recent press conference that the railcars were safe and SEPTA had instituted more frequent inspections.

SEPTA's regional rail fleet consists of 225 Silverliner IV railcars, which are about 50 years old. They represent around two-thirds but due to financial reasons they must continue using them.

We have continued to run these trains well beyond the time when they should have retired. We are confident these trains are safe," Sauer added, noting that SEPTA uses the Silverliner IV much less often than the rest.

He said that halting the use of these cars would mean a 2/3 cut in service, and cost $2 billion. However, SEPTA was in dire financial straits.

Sauer stated that the cars were some of the oldest vehicles in the country. The agency has also developed a set of forty mitigation measures including notifications to staff, safety checks, and audible alerts for malfunction lights.

Sauer stated, "We're confident we can continue to safely service the Silverliner IV Fleet."

The NTSB reported fires that involved the Silverliner IV at Levittown in New Jersey and Paoli in Pennsylvania as well as incidents on September 23 in Fort Washington in Pennsylvania and September 25 in Philadelphia.

The NTSB stated that the repeated fires - despite SEPTA’s attempts to fix them - show "organizational failures that prevent effective risk mitigation." (Reporting and editing by David Shepardson)

(source: Reuters)