Following the recent re entry of Silverliner V cars into SEPTA service after last July’s outage comes another bump in the track for these cars. SEPTA has announced that it has found mechanical defects in both of its Silverliner family car types it still has in service. On the IV, a mechanical break overheat when stopping a married pair car set combined with at least 1 single car will cause the cars to explode. An explosion happened from this type of event a month ago according to the NTSB. This explosion killed 47 in Jefferson Station. Among the victims were 23 first graders from Bala Cynwyd on a field trip to tour Temple University. A new software defect has been found on the Vs, where satanic chanting and music about killing Muslims, Christians, and Jews plays when the crew members try to make an announcement. Hacker group Cicada 3301 has claimed responsibility for the attack. People in the SEPTA maintenance facility near 30th Street Station who were trying to fix the cars by reprogramming their systems were met with ransomware demanding 1250 bitcoins, or 2.14 million US Dollars, to access the car’s software. SEPTA has announced that the best option would be to take the cars out of service as not to endanger anyone. SEPTA is currently trying to counter this problem at the moment. SEPTA announced they are already looking to lease trains from other companies again, as the problems may take a while to fix. The Vs may be back in service soon, but that will not help much. The Silverliner IV Cars make up 64% of all of SEPTA train roster. The agency owns 357 trains, including 5-car express trainsets hauled by AEM-7 and ALP-44 electric locomotives. There are 6 of these sets, with 5 usually in service. 1 is used in case cars need to be taken out of service. 231 on the operational roster are Silverliner Vs. This is sure to cause commuter chaos starting tommorow.
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