SEPTA will continue using its oldest Regional Rail train cars despite a warning from the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday that they pose "an immediate and unacceptable safety risk" following a series of electrical fires this year.

NTSB gave SEPTA an urgent recommendation to pull its Silverliner IV Regional Rail cars from service, calling their outdated design a threat to passenger safety unless the fleet is retrofitted or replaced. The Silverliner IV cars, which make up more than half of SEPTA's Regional Rail fleet, were introduced in the 1970s and previously had been used by the Reading Company railroad.

NTSB officials cited five electrical fires that broke out in Silverliner IV cars going back to February, when a train caught fire in Ridley Park, Delaware County. All

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