SEPTA Officials Announce That Trolley Tunnels May Reopen Within The Next Two Weeks
Written by David C. Lester, Editor-in-Chief
SEPTA Trolley (wikipedia.org)
PHILADELPHIA –– SEPTA trolley tunnels in Philadelphia could be reopening soon.
According to the Philadelphia Tribune, SEPTA’s trolley system realized it had a problem when, in October 2025, 150 passengers were stranded in a tunnel aboard four trains, and had to be evacuated. Then, a second tunnel stranding event occurred on October 22, 2025, in which 300 passengers were stuck in the tunnel.
According to the Tribune, SEPTA authorities “began new test runs to simulate service to ensure that everything is ready to safely restart service and ensure passenger safety on Jan. 3.” The officials are also optimistic that full service can be restored by the middle of January.
The malfunction that resulted in trolleys being stranded in the tunnel was the failure of 3-inch sliders which connect the trollies to the overhead catenary that powers the vehicles. A malfunction of the sliders could result in them pulling away from the wire, which would kill power to the train while in the tunnel.
SEPTA attempted using 4-inch sliders, but found that they were damaging the infrastructure overhead, requiring the agency to replace the 4-inch devices with the old 3-inch ones.
Kate O’Connor, SEPTA’s Assistant General Manager told the Tribune that at least one of the October 2025 incidents occurred when the trolley “had completely lost its carbon and was worn all the way through, and that’s when we had to stop the service and reassess the damage.”
SEPTA’s Director of Media Relations, Andrew Busch, told the Tribune in an email that “We don’t have a specific date set for the reopening yet, but it is accurate that we are looking toward mid-month, following some additional testing. Regarding trolley system ridership, it is approximately 80,000 on an average weekday. Of those riders, about 60,000 ride through the tunnel. The FTA does not need to approve the reopening. They did cite an incident we had before the shutdown in which customers had to be evacuated from the tunnel due to a problem with the overhead wires, but the directives they issued did not necessitate the shutdown of the tunnel. SEPTA has met those directives.”
