$re = '/\S\(<td>)(.+?)(<\/td>)|(<td><a href\s*=) |(\"[^\"]*\")/';
$str = '" <td>PFltLd_stAshRstEEP</td><td><a href="PFltLd_AshLoadFuelCnt.htm?1_PFltLd_stAshRstEEP">AshLoadFuelCnt_1</a><br>
<a href="PFltLd_AshLoadTimeCorr.htm?1_PFltLd_stAshRstEEP">AshLoadTimeCorr_1</a><br>
</td>';
$subst = "\1\2";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php