The MFL Equipment Shortage: Where are the rest of the cars?

Published: May 21, 2023 4 minute read

What the El!?! There’s no way in El you’re going to enjoy this!

SEPTA’s Market-Frankford Line (MFL) is SEPTA’s busiest route. In 2022, the MFL carried over 54,000 riders daily. And yet, recent tweets from SEPTA show that the reliability of the equipment on the MFL has plummeted. There are daily reports of service delays due to equipment problems.

The research committee of the Philly Transit Riders Union has learned that these subway cars date back to the mid- to late ‘90s. Here’s what we found out and what we are wondering.

1^st: The MFL has 220 train cars which operate in 6-car sets from Frankford in Northeast Philly to 69^th St. in Upper Darby, passing through Kensington, Northern Liberties, Center City and West Philly along the way.

2^nd : If there are 220 train cars and they run in 6-car sets, that means there should be 36 sets of trains with four cars left over: 220/6 = 36.66

3^rd: According to a recent tweet by Fox 29 anchor Bob Kelly, on April 23^rd, there were only 9 train sets available. In a normal rush hour, 16 train sets are available. So let’s do some quick math here:

As a reminder, there are 220 cars available for the Market-Frankford Line.

If there were 9 train sets available on April 23^rd, that means only 54 cars were running on the MFL that day.

If a normal weekday rush hour uses 16 trains, that means there are 96 cars running on the MFL during rush hour.

During a normal rush hour period there are 96 cars. SEPTA has 220 cars for the MFL. 220 total cars minus 96 cars in service should leave you with 124 cars that aren’t being used during the rush hour period.

With that being said, the Philly Transit Riders Union would like to know:

WHERE ARE THE REST OF THE MARKET-FRANKFORD LINE CARS?

If there were only 54 cars available on that one particular day, that means over 120 cars were not available for use. This isn’t acceptable for the busiest transit route in the entire system. We strongly encourage that SEPTA give a “state of the system” address and let the public know what’s going on, because from the looks of it, there are a lot of issues that aren’t being discussed publicly that riders should be aware of. We understand that the Market-Frankford Line cars are almost thirty years old and that things do break down; they are machines after all. We also know that there’s a team of talented employees working behind the scenes to keep these cars running on a daily basis.

The Philly Transit Riders Union is recommending that SEPTA explore contingency plans that can be deployed for when the MFL does have issues. Similar to their regional rail “early exit” plans from several years back, SEPTA should let their riders know every day the level of service on the MFL to the best of their abilities. If that service isn’t running up to a certain standard, riders could be directed to use alternative service. Other courses of action that SEPTA should consider:

Run supplemental shuttle bus service from Frankford and the Northeast to Center City AND run additional service on Routes 3, 5, 21, and 31 so riders in Frankford, Kensington, West Philadelphia and University City can have frequent bus service to and from Center City and along the MFL corridor.The Philly Transit Riders Union strongly believes that by providing supplemental shuttle bus service and additional local bus service, SEPTA will show MFL riders that SEPTA actually cares about their quality of service while actively working on a long-term solution until new cars are ordered and arrive. It is imperative that SEPTA demonstrates to these riders that their neighborhoods aren’t forgotten about. If it ran buses when the Silverliner Vs were taken out of service, it should do no less when there’s a shortage of MFL cars.
Allow riders to use regional rail service with their Transpasses to get to and from Center City. This might mean running special trips on bus lines to meet regional rail trains and coordinating schedules so that transfers are seamless and easy. Currently the regional rail system could use additional ridership and would be able to absorb the additional riders without incurring significant cost increases.