Monday is set to be another benchmark for SEPTA in its effort to restore service on Regional Rail, following months of crowded trains, cancellations and delays.
All morning express trains are scheduled to resume this week. Since September, those trips have been local trains, meaning they stopped at every station on the line. Express trains were reinstated for the afternoon rush in late November.
Regional Rail passengers should “expect trains with more cars, fewer cancellations and fewer trains unexpectedly expressing past stations” as capacity increases, SEPTA posted on its website.
“This is a major step toward restoring normal service on Regional Rail,” Scott Sauer, the authority’s general manager, said in a statement Friday.
Transit officials said there are 24 morning express trains across the Paoli/Thorndale, Media/Wawa, Lansdale/Doylestown, Manayunk/Norristown, Wilmington/Newark and West Trenton lines.
Riders are advised to check schedules available at septa.org, as some trains that had been local trips will now be bypassing stops.
Federal regulators on Oct. 1 ordered SEPTA to thoroughly inspect its Silverliner IV vehicles – 223 rail cars built in the 1970s that comprise about 60% of the Regional Rail fleet. The mandate came in response to a series of five fives between February and September 2025.
The inspections were completed in mid-November, but crews have been working on repairs identified during the checks, authority representatives said. So far, 180 cars have been cleared to go back onto the tracks, according to SEPTA.
“The railcars we have returned to service are performing extremely well, and we expect that to continue moving forward,” Sauer said.
