PATCO rider: ‘I was on the train!’

Lightning doesn't strike twice, they say.

But now PATCO rider Sue Smith has been stuck twice on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

This morning, she was one of about 250 passengers aboard a westbound train that became disabled on the bridge.

"It was a little adventure. But nothing compared to last time," the legal assistant from Mantua Township, Gloucester County, said by phone this morning.

Both times, she said, she caught a train about 6 a.m. at the Ferry Avenue Station in Camden.

"That was the exact same time. I'm not going to pick that train anymore," said Smith, 53.

In the "much scarier" incident two years ago, smoke prompted the evacuation of passengers onto the steel-grate catwalk, where they could see the river below, she said.

This morning, passengers remained on the train for about 45 minutes, then walked through the cars onto a "rescue train," according to Ed Kasuba, a spokesman for the Delaware River Port Authority, which oversees PATCO.

"I was on the train!" Smith emailed the Inquirer, shortly after getting to work near 16th and Market. "It was an adventurous morning to say the least!"

"All was going great until we got on the bridge," she wrote. "All of the sudden the train stopped, and the lights went out."

She went on to describe the whole ordeal:

"We could tell everything went off it got so quiet. No one said anything at first, then the driver exited his booth and went to the back of the train. He was gone for a few minutes and came back to let us know something was wrong with the last car.

"Everyone was very patient, out came the cell phones to tell everyone what was going on."

She later said by phone that when she texted her son, he offered to drive over and pick her up.

No need.

"Cop cars arrived on the side of the train, and traffic was blocked on the right hand side of the bridge," her email continued. "After about a half-hour, the natives started getting restless and wanted to know what was going on. Some police officers came onto the cars and tried their best to explain.

"The train started to get a little bit cooler and some people were getting anxious. Mostly everyone on the train was very calm, there was one guy who complained the whole time though (there's always one). Once the rescue train arrived we all had to exit the broken train, and walk through to the new train.

"There were lots of cars, so everyone had a seat. We went back to Camden, and then the trained switched tracks and we headed back over the bridge into Philadelphia.

"Everything was run very orderly and the crew and police were very pleasant and understanding. It all worked out well.

"Now if I can just get my employer to give me administrative leave for the 71 minutes I was late, I would be happy!"

The "way scarier" incident happened on Dec. 18, 2006.

"We were right over the water at the top of the bridge, and everyone smelled like an electrical fire," she said.

The train stopped and "fire trucks came from all over the place onto the bridge," she said.

"They made us all exit the train. We had to get off and get on the catwalk for like 15 minutes."

It was a long step down onto the catwalk, which was a see-through grate.

"All you saw was river underneath," she said. "Where we were was nothing but water."

A handicapped woman needed help getting off the train.

After fire officials gave the all-clear, the passengers waiting on the catwalk reboarded and the train resumed, but they had to switch trains at Eighth and Market.

"Everything was fine," Smith said. "Nobody panicked. Everybody remained calm."

According to PATCO's official account, the train stopped after its operator "noticed smoke and sparks coming from underneath the first car."