SEPTA’s Market Frankford Line (MFL) cars are on their way to getting an interior facelift. Over the next five years, SEPTA will replace the blue, fabric seat upholstery with blue, fiberglass seat panels. The overhead lighting – currently a fluorescent light that shines through yellowed panels – will be replaced with bright, white, energy-efficient LED bulbs.

“One of the top complaints we have on the vehicles is the cloth seating,” said Ron Hopkins, SEPTA’s assistant general manager. “A lot of people won’t even sit on the seats.”

SEPTA is working with American Seating, the company that manufactured the seats used on Broad Street Line (BSL) trains, to develop similar fiberglass seat panels that will be installed on MFL cars. Unlike the current seats, which stain easily and absorb liquids, the new seat panels will be easier to clean and more durable. The fiberglass seats do scratch, but SEPTA project engineer Joe Costello said that scratches and graffiti can be buffed out easily since the fiberglass color is consistent all the way through.

At $41 apiece, the fiberglass seats have a higher upfront cost than the cloth seats, which cost $23 to replace. But because the fiberglass seats are more durable, SEPTA expects to save as much as $1.7 million over the seats’ lifetime.

In addition, the seat panels will be more consistent with those on SEPTA’s BSL and trolley cars. At first the new seats will be a dull blue, but Costello said with time, wear will shine the seats as it has done on the other vehicles.

Passengers could start seeing the new seat panels this fall, but it will take years before all of the MFL cars are updated. SEPTA plans to install the new panels when it overhauls the vehicles. Since SEPTA overhauls its 218 subway cars at a rate of 44-per-year, the full process could take up to five years.