Philadelphia, PA: After over four years of being out of service for repair, SEPTA’s fleet of historic Presidential Conference Committee (PCC) trolley cars have finally returned to the rails today, June 16th, 2024.
In February 2020, SEPTA pulled all eighteen PCC-II trolley cars out of service due to, at the time, only 4 being in an operational state, and only two of those 4 being fully functional. On their last days, it was apparent that these cars had issues as they had many visible flaws. From doors being unable to close to visible rust on the bodies, these cars were clearly running on their last legs.
When SEPTA removed these cars from service in 2020, it was assumed that repairs would take eighteen months. However with many unforeseen circumstances like the pandemic, and the damage being much more than cosmetic, the repairs took much longer than expected.
On top of this, due to a massive I-95 re-construction project that was expected to take but 2 years, but ended up taking much longer, the PCC cars also haven’t run on Richmond Street and East Girard Avenue since 2011
Now that we are in 2024, the PCC cars have returned to Girard Avenue. With 8 functional cars we are about to see a true return-to-form for this line. Not only are the PCC cars back on the 
(Route 15) for the first time in 4 years, but they’re also back on Richmond Street for the first time in 13 years!
