WASHINGTON — Adding to the ongoing issues of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, the Federal Transit Administration has issued an emergency order requiring inspection of the catenary system of SEPTA’s 40-mile trolley network by this Friday, FTA Administrator Marc Molinaro said at a news conference today (Nov. 4, 2025).
The press conference by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, called to address SEPTA issues, also included Federal Railroad Administration Administrator David Fink and Derek Barrs, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Video of the conference, which also included a number of questions about the safety of the air traffic control system, is available here.
Duffy said the press conference followed “a great conversation” with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, and Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators, John Fetterman (D) and Dave McCormick (R). “We want to work together to find a solution on how the management can change and how the safety record can change with SEPTA,” Duffy said.
The FTA order, issued last week, stems from four “significant emergency events” that likely involved the catenary system over the last 30 days, Molinaro said. It was not immediately clear if that time frame included the Sept. 25 incident in which four people were injured when a pantograph penetrated the body of a trolley car after becoming entangled in the catenary [see “NTSB releases preliminary report …,” Trains.com, Nov. 4, 2025].
Molinaro said the FTA is requiring SEPTA “to conduct a more aggressive inspection structure so they stay on top of any particular concerns. When that inspection is completed, we hope to know the true extent of the degradation of the system.” Once that is determined, he said, the FTA will “direct them to make the appropriate investments and repairs, and perhaps other emergency steps.” The inspections will determine the full extent of the issues, he said, “but we do have serious concerns about the system and its safety.”
Fink, addressing the ongoing issues with the SEPTA Silverliner IV cars in Regional Rail service, called the problems “a management issue and a maintenance issue, not a money issue.” He said 135 of the the 223 cars have now been inspected in the wake of an FRA order spurred by five fires involving the Silverliners earlier this year [see “FRA issues an emergency order …,” Trains.com, Oct.. 2, 2025]. He said two-thirds of the cars that had been inspected need to be shopped “because they have problems that are going to be fixed before they’re put back into service.” Also, he said, installation of a new thermal sensor is complete on 18 cars. That sensor will shut off power in case of overheating of any electrical components.
“I think we’ve kind of turned the corner on the heavy rail side,” Fink said, “with the mechanical people, safety culture assessments, stand downs, and working with people to be sure that we have safe equipment out there.”
Fink said the FRA has been involved “in an aggressive fashion” during the Silverliner inspections, with 10 to 15 federal inspectors on hand daily. “Going forward, it’s really difficult for us at FRA to have 10 or 15 inspectors down there” because of the ongoing shutdown of the federal government, he said. “These folks are flying in from all over the country and are not being paid.”
SEPTA said in a statement today, reported by WPVI-TV, that in the last year, it has “made major strides in our commitment to instill an culture of safety, accountability, and effective leadership at all levels of the organization. We are confident that the service we provide every day for nearly 800,000 riders is safe, and we are committed to working with our partners at the local, state, and federal level to ensure that we are continually improving.”
Barrs took part in the press conference because, he said, SEPTA also faces questions over its ability to meet the insurance requirement for its bus system. “They are required to have a $5 million guarantee to make sure that they’re able to cover any types of claims they may have,” he said. “They have not been able to provide that information. I think what came out of this meeting today was us being able to come to a resolution on that.”
