PHILADELPHIA (January 9, 2026) – SEPTA will restore all morning express trips on Regional Rail starting on Monday, Jan. 12. This comes as more Silverliner IV railcars are being returned to service following FRA-mandated inspections and repairs over the last three months.
“This is a major step toward restoring normal service on Regional Rail,” said SEPTA General Manager Scott A. Sauer. “The return of morning express trips will optimize all service by enabling us to more efficiently serve high-volume stations, which will reduce crowding and resulting delays and pass-ups on local trains.”
SEPTA was able to restore evening express trips in late November; however, more railcars were needed before express trips could return in the morning. Up until now, the best option for providing as much service as possible throughout the system during the busy morning commute has been to run all service as local – meaning all trains stop at all stations.
Therefore, following the start of the FRA-mandated inspections on Oct. 1, SEPTA converted all scheduled morning express trains to local. This totals 24 morning trips across six of SEPTA’s most heavily traveled lines, including Paoli/Thorndale, Media/Wawa, Lansdale/Doylestown, Manayunk/Norristown, Wilmington/Newark and West Trenton.
While the return of morning express trips will improve service, SEPTA is urging customers to check their timetables before heading out on Monday morning so that they know what this change will mean for them. For some customers, certain trips that had been stopping at their stations since October will now bypass them. Schedules are available on the SEPTA App and website at septa.org/schedules.
SEPTA is still working to finish repairs that followed the FRA-mandated inspections of the Silverliner IV fleet. To date, repairs have been completed on 180 of the 223 50-year-old railcars, which make up approximately two-thirds of SEPTA’s total Regional Rail fleet.
“SEPTA has committed to enhanced inspection and maintenance routines for these aging railcars to ensure safe and reliable service as we work through a multi-year process to purchase a replacement fleet,” Sauer said. “The railcars we have returned to service are performing extremely well, and we expect that to continue moving forward.”
For more information about SEPTA, visit septa.org, follow @SEPTA, or download the official SEPTA app.
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