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SEPTA Explains Its 'Reserved' Front-Row Seats In New Regional Rail Cars

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- People taking SEPTA's Regional Rail trains for the first time this Thanksgiving may notice that the front seats in the newer cars are roped off.

Riders on SEPTA's Silverliner V regional rail cars may wonder why two perfectly good seats at the front of the new cars are roped off with yellow tape.

SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney says it's for the safety of passengers who may sit there, and for the engineers.

"The engineer is in a half-cab," Maloney explains, and if the engineer has to make an emergency escape out of that cab, not having those two seats occupied with either people or a bicycle or something like that allows for their quick exit from the cab."

Thirty Silverliner V's went into service earlier this year (see related story).  Maloney says SEPTA has gotten "a few" complaints from riders who would have liked to have taken in the view from what are called the "railfan" seats.

Reported by Mike DeNardo, KYW Newsradio 1060

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