As mediation efforts intensified, a fatal accident shut down a section of the SEPTA's still-operating Regional Rail service during the morning rush hour for the second day in a row.

Rendell met yesterday with SEPTA officials and said later union members need to realize that in the current economic climate, they cannot expect a better contract than the one on offer.

He is slated to meet with Willie Brown, president of Transport Workers Union Local 234, and other labor officials before the start of the evening rush hour.

The union has tentatively scheduled a news conference for 5:30 p.m.

The union's more than 5,000 members went on strike at 3 a.m. Tuesday, shutting down service on the city's subway, bus and trolley lines.

The transit disruptions caused by the strike were compounded this morning when an R3 Regional Rail train strick and killed a SEPTA track inspector at 8:30 a.m. in North Philadelphia.

Service on the R2, R3 and R5 lines north of Fern Rock was suspended for three hours while officials investigated.

Yesterday morning, a fire in the lead car of four-car R5 train in West Philadelphia disrupted service between Center City and Paoli-Thorndale for two hours.

SEPTA's Victory Division buses and the 101 and 102 trolleys, which operate in the suburbs, in the meantime are rolling again after a court ordered striking union members to withdraw pickets from the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby.

The pickets yesterday allowed only a handful of buses to get through in the morning and halted service on the two trolley routes.

The union representing striking transit workers, in an apparent bid to win the support of an angry public, launched a radio advertising campaign saying that the strike is aimed in part to stopping SEPTA from sending maintenance work out of state.

The ad says equipment often returns still needing work by union workers and argues that the union is fighting to create jobs in Pennsylvania and keep riders safe.

As the strike entered its third day, it is becoming evident that the morning rush hour is expanding, with traffic building earlier than usual, while the evening rush hour period apparently remains unchanged.

The result is that the trip home is proving to be more challenging than the one to school or work in the morning.

For example, on Regional Rail, passengers report that trains are more packed in the evening than in the morning.