If you missed the news over the past couple of days, SEPTA discovered a problem with 1/3 of its regional rail line cars late last week. This has resulted in the cars being pulled from service and SEPTA planning a reduced scheduled (basically a modified Saturday schedule) over the summer. This issue includes the Manayunk/Norristown line that services MoreThanTheCurve.com’s coverage area.

Here is what is posted on SEPTA’s website:

On Sunday, July 3rd, SEPTA provided details on the defects that were discovered on our fleet of Silverliner V Railroad cars, which prompted the immediate removal of the 120 Silverliner V cars from service. As a follow-up to the information already provided, SEPTA has completed the inspection of the entire Railroad fleet and is now in the process of analyzing engineering solutions to repair the defects and return the fleet to service.

These 120 cars represent approximately 1/3 of the Regional Rail fleet and account for approximately 13,000 available seats for our customers. Since these cars make multiple trips during the morning and evening peak periods the impact to our customers is substantial. The following are the plans currently in place for Regional Rail service beginning Tuesday, July 5, 2016:

Regional Rail Service

Until further notice, beginning July 5th, SEPTA will operate a modified Saturday schedule on Regional Rail in place of Weekday service (Monday-Friday).

Each line will have an extra train that will run earlier than the normal Saturday schedule and additional trains will be added to the AM/PM travel periods. But please remember that all available equipment has to be spread out over the entire Railroad network so the extra service will not reflect normal weekday frequency levels.

So basically the normal ridership will need to fit on fewer trains. SEPTA is encouraging people to use buses, and its other services (such as the Norristown High Speed Line) in their travel plans.