The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s Center City trolley tunnel reopened this past Monday, Jan. 12, at 5 a.m., nearly two months after the unplanned shutdown began.
The tunnel had been closed almost continuously since Nov. 7 due to damage to the overhead wires caused by a replacement part being rolled out to the trolley fleet. However, two weekend-long closures and one week-long closure are planned for January and February:
- From 10 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 23 to 5 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 26
- From 10 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 30 to 5 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 2
- From 5 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 15 to 10 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 22
In mid-December, the agency announced it would operate a shuttle bus from 40th Street Station to City Hall, making all trolley station stops. The service has been discontinued, but will resume during the planned closures.
The faulty replacement part, called a slider, is a grooved, carbon-coated assembly on the top of the trolley pole that makes direct contact with the electrical wires. SEPTA said it had begun installing larger, less costly replacement sliders that had reduced maintenance in other cities, but the damage the new sliders caused required replacing 20 percent of the overhead wire in the five-mile-long tunnel.
The closure was extremely disruptive for students and community members, many of whom rely on the T lines to commute to work or campus.
“[M]y biggest gripe about it was that it made getting to Center City West harder with 19th and 22nd Street Stations being closed, and SEPTA only started running the shuttle that serves those stops several weeks ago or so,” Arthur Millet, a first-year engineering student, told The Triangle.
“It really negatively impacted my ability to get to Trader Joe’s,” said Paulie Loscalzo, editor-in-chief of The Triangle.
While SEPTA typically schedules a month-long summer closure, which it calls the “Trolley Tunnel Blitz,” it will be skipped this year while Philadelphia hosts the 2026 Semiquincentennial and FIFA World Cup festivities.
SEPTA additionally announced on Jan. 12 that Regional Rail service had resumed its regular schedule, as its failure- and fire-plagued Silverliner IV railcars were being inspected, repaired, and returned to service.
The railcars, the youngest of which are 50 years old, began inexplicably catching fire last year, causing shortages and widespread service breakdowns. Federal authorities stepped in to mandate safety improvements and mechanical upgrades, and urgently recommended replacement of the railcars — a significant capital expenditure.
SEPTA experienced something of an annus horribilis in 2025, with decades of problems seeming to come to a head. Though the agency averted a labor strike, the train fires began as the system ground to a halt amid a funding shortfall and political gridlock tied up the state budget, temporarily eliminating bus routes and slashing service across all modes.
Governor Josh Shapiro twice bypassed the state legislature by “flexing” one-time emergency state transportation funding to SEPTA for operations. However, Harrisburg has yet to resolve the question of funding transit across the state for next year or beyond, and SEPTA continues to operate at a deficit even after cutting costs and raising its standard fare from $2.50 to $2.90.
“As a SEPTA rider, the experience this past year was rough. There’s a lot of uncertainty — what’s going to happen to SEPTA, and whether my train’s gonna show up,” reflected Caleigh Brogan, mechanical engineering major ‘26.
“[U]ltimately, it’s not their fault,” Brogan acknowledged. “But something like Regional Rail, that I rely on to get home around the holidays… I have to tell my parents that ‘I’ll be home around this time, maybe, if my train isn’t delayed or cancelled.’ …It’s just been very unenjoyable to be a SEPTA rider, and it’s really unfortunate, because I love SEPTA and want to have a good transportation system in our city.”