It’s not easy to move 24 passenger train cars from Montreal to Philadelphia, especially amid trade tensions with Canada.
The surplus Bombardier Comet cars SEPTA bought from Montreal’s Exo transit system for $8.58 million arrived Sunday, pulled by Canadian National and CSX locomotives.
They’re headed to the transit authority’s Frazer Shops and Yard in Malvern for some modifications before joining the Regional Rail fleet in two to three months.
No tariffs were added to the purchase price, SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said. The agency had estimated that it might have to pay up to $3.5 million extra in U.S. duties, but it was determined the cars did not fall under a complex web of new trade rules.
It took months of research and discussion.
“We sent someone to Montreal, and they crawled under the cars taking pictures of plates with serial numbers on the steel components that showed they were made in the USA,” Busch said.
The pictures convinced U.S. Customs and Border Protection that the used rail cars were not subject to duties, he said.
“We essentially repatriated those items by bringing them over,” Busch said.
SEPTA also worked with the offices of Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators. Exo and Canadian transportation officials helped dig up contracts from when the cars were made to verify the origin of the steel.
The Trump administration imposed a 25% tariff in March 2025 on imported Canadian goods not covered by a trade treaty between the two countries, one negotiated by the president. That surcharge was also extended to steel, aluminum, and automobiles.
This month, Trump imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion in Canadian goods, including hockey sticks, agricultural items, and building materials.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney retaliated with 50% tariffs on a number of imported U.S. products.
The Exo cars from Montreal are intended as reinforcements after the fallout from five fires on SEPTA’s 50-year-old Silverliner IV Regional Rail cars last year, which disrupted service on the commuter lines for months.
They will be mixed in with the rest of the Regional Rail cars, along with 10 coaches leased last year from Maryland’s commuter transit agency.
Federal authorities last October ordered SEPTA to inspect all 223 Silverliner IV cars for safety problems and to fix them.
Passengers dealt with canceled trips, delays, and skipped stops as the Silverliner IVs were fixed. Many trains were shorter than usual.
Unlike Silverliner IVs and the newer V series, which both carry passengers and power the train, the Montreal cars must be pulled or pushed by locomotives.
SEPTA has 15 electric locomotives, which it bought in 2019, and it operates 45 Regional Rail passenger cars that need to be pulled.
