Amtrak power failures stalling public transit in Philadelphia area

Frequent Amtrak power failures have stranded SEPTA rail riders repeatedly this summer, sometimes forcing passengers to abandon trains mid-route.

"It's very frustrating. It seems like it happens at least once a week," said Montgomery Maxton, 31, of Chestnut Hill, who was on trains that were halted on the Chestnut Hill West line Tuesday and Wednesday.

Maxton, a photographer and writer who recently moved from Cincinnati to work in Center City, said the summer's delayed trains have cost him much more than lost time, as he has had to pay for Center City parking or long cab rides when the trains left him stranded.

"There were some very upset passengers," Maxton said of Wednesday's stalled train. "One guy exited the train before the conductors received permission and while they were outside inspecting the train. That guy fell a good two feet into water on the side of the tracks."

Amtrak provides power for seven of SEPTA's 13 Regional Rail routes, and the national railroad has been beset by power failures all along the Northeast Corridor this summer.

In hot weather, power wires can sag and become entangled in a train's pantograph - its rooftop power connector. Other outages have been caused by voltage disparities between Amtrak and SEPTA lines, and, as on Wednesday, by objects thrown onto the power lines.

In June, 31 trains on the Chestnut Hill West line were delayed by power problems and 40 were delayed by Amtrak's dispatching or scheduling issues, said Ron Hopkins, chief of SEPTA's control center.

In June and July, trains were at least six minutes late 11 percent of the time on the Chestnut Hill West line, compared with 9 percent on the entire system, Hopkins said.

SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said passengers from stranded trains could continue their journeys free on a SEPTA bus, if they could make their way to one. He said passengers are entitled to refunds if trains are more than 15 minutes late.

Wednesday's incident on the Chestnut Hill line occurred shortly after 1 p.m., when Train 829 from Center City was halted just after leaving the Queen Lane station. Power was knocked out by a pipe thrown into the power lines near the North Philadelphia station.

Passengers had to wait on the train about 45 minutes, until the crew got permission to escort the passengers back along the tracks to the Queen Lane station.

"The conductors were very professional and cool during the situation, probably because it's become so routine," Maxton said. He said 60 or 70 people were on the stranded train.

"They keep blaming it on Amtrak, but it happens so much that it seems they would find an alternative. Why not have a diesel locomotive that could push the trains?" Maxton said.

Last month, after June 8 power failures disrupted the evening rush hour for thousands of SEPTA riders, the agency issued an apology to passengers, acknowledging that "when it's 98 degrees and you're sitting in a dead train with no air-conditioning, we understand that you don't actually care who owns/controls the rail right-of-way; and we never say this to make an excuse but rather to let you know that we depend on Amtrak controllers and maintainers to assist us during these situations."

SEPTA chief engineer Jeff Knueppel said Thursday he would meet soon with Amtrak officials about the power issues.