From the Inquirer:

To help ease overcrowding on Regional Rail lines, SEPTA plans to lease eight used railcars from NJ Transit.

The cars, to augment SEPTA’s existing fleet of 348 cars until new Silverliner V cars begin arriving in 2009, are to be put into service next month if the $10,000-a-month lease is approved by the SEPTA board tomorrow.

As gasoline prices rise, SEPTA rail ridership is up 14 percent this year, and many rush-hour trains are packed with standing passengers, straining the system’s capacity.

The leased cars, which are being retired by NJ Transit as new double-decker cars come on line, must be used with SEPTA locomotive because they are not self-propelled like most of SEPTA’s fleet.

Looks like SEPTA is finally doing something to accomodate this surge of new riders. Good on them. Keep it going, people - the price of gas isn’t going down anytime soon….