‘A matter of time': Transportation Sec. warns SEPTA to take action for safety
One day after sending a scathing letter to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, U.S. Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy was in Philadelphia to talk about the government shutdown and discussed the ongoing issues with SEPTA.
In the letter sent of Thursday, Oct. 23, Duffy wrote about, what he calls, his serious concerns about the safety and fiscal state of SEPTA as the transit agency is just seven days away from missing a major deadline.
“If changes aren’t made immediately, it’s only a matter of time before the rail system erupts in flames and kills someone,” Duffy wrote.
The clock is ticking down for SEPTA on a looming Halloween deadline. It has seven days to finish emergency inspections set by the Federal Railroad Administration of it’s Silverliner IV train cars because of fire concerns.
“I don’t want to talk about consequences, I want to talk about action. I want trains to be safe and run on time. That’s what I want,” Duffy told NBC10 when asked what will happen if SEPTA does not meet the Oct. 31 deadline.
The agency says at its current speed, workers are inspecting eight cars per day. That would need to change to about 17 each day to be done by Halloween.
“Nobody wants us to do this fast. They want us to do this right and that’s what our commitment is. We’re not going to take any chances on missing something. So if that means we have to do 8, instead of 12 or 20, that’s what’s got to happen,” SEPTA’s general manager Scott Sauer said.
Gov. Josh Shapiro fired back after Duffy’s letter on Thursday night, saying he wanted $167 million in funding for SEPTA.
“Instead of issuing a press release, Secretary Duffy should call his fellow Republicans and get them to fund the Governor’s mass transit funding package for SEPTA. We would be happy to provide their phone numbers,” a spokesperson for Shapiro wrote in a statement.
Riders are continuing to face delays and cancellations because of on-going emergency inspections.
SEPTA was asked why they aren’t adding more workers to inspect the trains, but the Sauer said they brought in outside consultants to help and will only use expert staff.
Sauer also said that if they brought in people with no experience and had to train them on how to do the inspections, it would slow down the process.
In recent months, SEPTA has faced a pair of lawsuits amid their longstanding fiscal cliff that claim the transit agency is making up their budget crisis in order to get more money from the government.
One lawsuit argues that SEPTA’s claims that it cannot operate at the same level of service without new funding leading to drastic service cuts and fare hikes are “bunk.”
At the same time as all of this is going on, the union contract with SEPTA bus drivers and operators is also about to expire on Nov. 7.
SEPTA told NBC10 that those conversations are going well but they still have a long way to go.
