SEPTA purchases 24 rail cars from exo
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is purchasing 24 rail cars from exo in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Exo, which operates public transportation in the Greater Montreal area, formally approved SEPTA’s $8.58 million bid for the coach cars at its board meeting in March.
Funding for the purchase of the rail cars comes from the nearly $220 million in additional capital dollars allocated by Gov. Josh Shapiro in November 2025 to support urgent safety upgrades and infrastructure improvements.
“We are grateful for Gov. Shapiro’s continued support of SEPTA, and we are committed to continuing to deliver improvements for our customers,” said SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer. “These additional rail cars will help us enhance reliability and expand capacity for our customers while we work toward replacing our aging Regional Rail fleet.”
SEPTA has been in contact with transit agencies across North America in recent months about potential rail car purchases, following Federal Railroad Administration-mandated inspections and repairs of its 50-year-old Silverliner IV fleet last fall. The agency notes the Silverliner IVs make up approximately two-thirds of the Regional Rail fleet, and large portions had to be removed from service while the work was performed, causing trip cancellations and reduced capacity for several months.
To avoid further service disruptions, SEPTA has explored shorter-term alternatives such as leasing and purchasing used rail cars from other agencies. Earlier this year, 10 rail cars leased from MARC in Maryland were placed into service.
The purchase from Exo includes 24 coach cars that were originally manufactured by Bombardier in the late 1980s. The cars will operate with SEPTA’s existing fleet of ACS-64 electric locomotives.
SEPTA says it is currently working out logistics for transporting the passenger rail cars from Montreal. A timeline for placing them into service will be developed later this spring. SEPTA will be performing modifications to the doors and other systems as part of a program to upgrade the cars to SEPTA standards.