TODAY, GOV. RENDELL hopes that tempers will cool after a day of flying insults, before he tries to bring SEPTA and the striking Transport Workers Union Local 234 back to the bargaining table.

About 5 p.m. yesterday in a conference call, Rendell spoke with SEPTA's negotiators in a wide-ranging discussion of bargaining issues, including pensions, said SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney.

Rendell is expected to meet face-to-face with TWU negotiators late this afternoon, according to a TWU spokesman. The meeting location is undetermined.

Insiders believe that the earliest the two sides could return to the bargaining table would be tomorrow, possibly with Rendell again shuttling between them.

After talks broke down about 12:15 a.m. Tuesday, Rendell, a major player in the weekend talks, sharply criticized the union for failing to take what he considered a "sensational" contract in the recession. He called it "ludicrous" for the TWU to strike.

Both Rendell and Mayor Nutter took to the airwaves chastising the TWU for turning down a first-year signing bonus of $1,250, a 2.5 percent wage increase in year 2, and 3 percent increases for each of the remaining years of the five-year contract offer.

Local 234 President Willie Brown does not want Nutter at further meetings, calling him "Little Caesar" at a news conference yesterday.

"The only way this is going to get resolved is at the bargaining table," said Nutter. "If it's helpful for me to be there, I'll be there."

Brown said that "Little Caesar, as I'd like to call [Nutter], stood in front of everybody and told the riding public that a strike was off the table.

"What he did was hog the microphone. You never heard me or Governor Rendell saying that a strike was off the table. We said we were negotiating to try to get a contract."

Brown said that Nutter was trying to keep a lid on TWU members' salaries, because he believes that the SEPTA contract would be a template for negotiations with city workers.

"Their negotiations are their negotiations. Our negotiations are our negotiations," Nutter responded at a news conference.

Yesterday, both sides held news conferences to discuss pension issues.

SEPTA General Manager Joe Casey said that TWU wanted to enhance benefits for retirees. As an example, Casey cited a worker with 30 years' experience, who currently receives a benefit based on 54 percent of his base annual wage, not including overtime.

Under the TWU proposal, the same worker would receive 60 percent.

Although the increase shows a spread of 6 percentage points between the two proposals, Casey told reporters, the actual difference is an 11 percent increase over the current benefit.

Reacting to allegations that SEPTA has underfunded TWU's pension, Casey said: "We make payments every year [based on actuarial findings] to keep funding at the appropriate level."

TWU issued its own summary of the pension plan, showing that the funding level declined from 62 percent in 2007 to 52 percent today.

The union said that the decline was due to SEPTA management's underfunding of the plan and, in part, the stock market collapse.

TWU charged that SEPTA is "demanding" pension contribution of 3.5 percent from TWU members.

Casey said that the contribution was 3 percent in year three and 3.5 percent in year four of the five-year contract.

TWU said that "the additional employee contribution, in part, is designed to pay for SEPTA's historic failure to adequately fund the pension plan."

Rendell didn't see it that way. "Most people are losing their pensions," said Rendell. "Here, pensions are being increased by 11 percent. So this was an excellent contract."

Staff writers Julie Shaw and Catherine Lucey contributed to this report.