In an effort to boost Regional Rail service, SEPTA has purchased two dozen rail cars from Canada. The transit agency announced in a news release that they have purchased 24 rail cars from Exo, which operates public transportation in the Greater Montréal area. Officials said that Exo had forma lly approved SEPTA’s $8.58 million bid for the coach cars at its March board meeting. Funding for the purchase comes from nearly $220 million in additional capital dollars allocated by Gov. Josh Shapiro back in November. “We are grateful for Gov. Shapiro’s continued support of SEPTA, and we are committed to continuing to deliver improvements for our customers,” said General Manager Scott A. Sauer. “These additional rail cars will help us enhance reliability and expand capacity for our customers while we work toward replacing our aging Regional Rail fleet.” The transit agency shared that they had been in contact with other agencies across North America about potential railcar purchases after the FRA-mandated inspections and repairs of its Silverliner IV fleetthis past fall. SEPTA said the Silverliner IVs make up two-thirds of the Regional Rail fleet, and large portions had to be removed from service while this work was performed causing trip cancellations and reduced capacity for months. While repairs are ongoing for most Silverliner IVs, SEPTA has moved forward with finding replacement rail cars. Earlier this year,  the agency leased 10 rail cars from the Maryland Area Rail Commuter (MARC) system. The rail cars purchased from Exo will operate with SEPTA’s existing fleet of ACS-64 electric locomotives. At this time, SEPTA is currently working out a plan for transporting the passenger rail cars from Montréal. ...read more read less