Early this morning, 8142 running on the 21 (block 9103) crashed into a building at 15th and Chestnut Streets.  Apparently, the bus was on detour.  While it was turning from 15th Street to Chestnut Street, it couldn't make the turn, hit a car, and ran into the corner of the Del Frisco's restaurant.

Six passengers that were on the bus had minor injuries and were taken to area hospitals.  8142 took a good hit, but it's nothing that Berridge Shops on Wyoming Ave can't fix!

News coverage here: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/from_the_source/Student_high-rise_evacuated_in_Center_City.html

On Saturday night, Brandon S. spotted TMC RTS #51 in service on the Pottstown Area Rapid Transit night service to Upland Square.  According to others, TMCs #53 and #55 are still in service as well, meaning that the Gillig BRTs have NOT retired the TMCs as originally thought.  However, the 18 year old buses won't be around much longer, as Pottstown is purchasing more buses with federal stimulus funds this year.

According to Joe Parlin, the rumor about five Silverliner Vs being lost at sea is false. More likely it was sparked out by a railfan who did not wanted to see the Silverliner IIs (The units which they were replacing to leave SEPTA). As it stands now, everything is on schudule. Hopefully there will be no more delays in this order.  Last week, Rotem in South Korea has shipped three completed (701, 801-802) Silverliners Vs. The ship carring these Silverliners is expected to arrive in early March.

There are some rumors out there that the ship carrying the first production cars of the Silverliners V from Rotem in Korea has capsized with these shells on board. We do not have any more actual information at this time, nor can we verify if any of these rumors are true or not.  More infomation to follow..

According to Nicholas Mutignani, who is SouthernSeptaRida215 on the forums, hybrids has been swapped between Midvale, Callowhill, and Southern. The reason why this move has occurred is to test the performance on the route 23.  The route 23 is split between Southern and Midvale. Currently, the 2008 hybrids, which Callowhill has, are the only massive fleet of buses that are equipped with these devices. So in order to test the performance on the route 23, SEPTA has temporary swap buses between Callowhill, Midvale, and Southern.

The buses conformed at Midvale are as follows:
8130, 8131, 8133, 8138, 8143 & 8145 and possibly others

The buses conformed at Southern are as follows:
8146-8148, 8150-8160  and possibly others

[Photo-Right] 8139 on the route C to City Hall (Southbound).
Photographer: Michael E. Pearson

Southern and Callowhill are now involved in yet another temporary bus swap. Southern has sent several 8000 series New Flyer buses over to Callowhill in exchange for Callowhill's hybrids. The hybrids which Callowhill sent over has passenger counters installed on them which enabled SEPTA to collect more performance statistics on Southern lines. Mainly the route 17, as mentioned on the forums within the past several years, the Route 17 has had an unexpected increase in ridership!

Taken within the Southern depot Bay by SEPTAfan

According to Joe Perlin (SilverlinerII on the boards), and several other reliable members in the community. The next order of buses #8340-8439 will be the DE40LFR model of the New Flyer. The opition for the additional 20 buses has been exercised as well. Making the total order to buses to be 120 units (8340-8459).