Why did SEPTA get push-pulls in the first place?

I was wondering why SEPTA did get push-pull trains in the first place?

Lucius Kwok wrote:I was wondering why SEPTA did get push-pull trains in the first place?

It was an opportunity to add trains at a very reasonable cost. The additional cars allowed SEPTA to send its MUs out for overhaul without straining the rest of the fleet.

Thanks.

I thought some of them were provided by PennDot in the mid 90's in anticipation of the "I-95 Revive" project". They came online in 1990 just as the Reading Blues were being retired, so I'm guessing they were bought as a direct replacement for them, as during SEPTA's operation of the railroad began, those cars too were only used for peak hour service.

So they replaced the Blueliners? I never did get a chance to ride in them.

I thought the original 7 sets were built in 1987. Then the ALP-44 came in 1996.

jfrey40535 wrote:I thought some of them were provided by PennDot in the mid 90's in anticipation of the "I-95 Revive" project".

Correct. That was the second batch of cars, a block of ten (the initial order was 35). They are the ones with center doors.

The AEM-7 fleet and the original 35 cars were delivered in 1987. They were intended to replace the Blueliners, but in fact, they ran side by side with the Blues until 1990 while the Silverliner II and III fleet was being overhauled in 1988 and 1989.

In fact, the Blueliners (along with the Silverliner I-Pioneer III cars) just MIGHT have hung on a little longer into the 1990's if it wasn't for the fact that Amtrak was mandating ATC for all trains operating on the NEC (a result of the Chase accident). SEPTA had to replace all their cab signal equipment on the MU's with cab signals that also had ATC capability, and that doomed the Blues and Silverliner I's to a faster death.

The ALP-44 came in 1996 as part of a settlement with ABB on late delivery and other problems with the N-5 rail car fleet.

The ten center door cars arrived in late 1999/early 2000 as part of the above-mentioned I-95 Traffice Mitigation project sponsored by PennDOT. Of course, the plan back then was for I-95 to be reconstructed in consecutive segments like the Schuylkill Squeeze, but even THAT plan has been scaled back to take place over an extended period. Those cars were tacked onto the end of the last Metro-North order, and except for the interior decor and seat colors, were built to Metro-North specs.