SEPTA to sell ads on its website

SEPTA is preparing to enter into the world of online advertising.

The SEPTA Board’s administration committee reviewed a contract amendment Thursday that would allow Titan Outdoor LLC to begin selling ads on the SEPTA website.

The authority would get 62.5 percent of net sales and would have prior approval rights over all ads before they go up, according to Richard Burnfield, SEPTA’s CFO and treasurer.

He said that SEPTA and Titan were still deciding what webapges to place ads on but added that the two were looking at selling ads that would appear on the homepage.

Andy Abdallah, SEPTA’s director of contract administration, said the deal with Titan ― which currently has the contract to sell advertising for the authority ― estimated the deal would bring in “at least $100,000” a year.

Titan negotiated the deal to sell the naming rights to the Pattison Avenue station on the Broad Street Line and recently won a bus shelter maintenance contract from the city.

SEPTA’s operations committee reviewed a contract with Walco Electric Co. to buy up to 24 blower motor alternators and other parts, costing up to $140,000, for the Silverliner II railcars.

Though SEPTA will be retiring the fleet when the new Silverliner V cars are delivered, Burnfield said after the committee meeting that SEPTA didn’t want to risk having to pull the older cars from service if they run out of parts while the Silverliner Vs are being assembled.

The Silverliner V cars have faced numerous delays because of workforce and quality control problems at the South Philadelphia plant where they’re being manufactured, and Burnfield doesn’t expect the Silverliner IIs to be retired until at least the end of this year.

In the meantime, SEPTA will be buying parts for the Silverliner IIs and IIIs, which are also slated for retirement, using so-called “requirements contracts.” These allow the authority to purchase up to the number of parts ordered but avoid paying for undelivered parts. SEPTA won’t have to pay for any parts that aren’t needed by the time the railcars are retired.

The operations committee also reviewed a $1.7 million construction contract for JPC Group Inc. for the relocation of the Parkside Loop in West Philadelphia.

And it reviewed a contract upgrading SEPTA’s radio interoperability system to SyTech Corp., which built the current system. The work, which is expected to cost more than $400,000, will allow SEPTA workers to file reports on their smartphones and will address interoperability issues with SEPTA and Philadelphia police radios operating in the Center City tunnel.

Contact the reporter at acampisi@planphilly.com