Electrical failure shuts down PATCO for over an hour

Hundreds of commuters were stranded Friday morning when a power failure halted rush-hour PATCO trains for more than 90 minutes.

One train, loaded with passengers, was stuck at the crest of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

Danelle Hunter, a PATCO spokeswoman, said the outage at 8:20 a.m. apparently was caused by a fault in the railroad's main power line, and Public Service Electric & Gas crews were dispatched to help restore electricity.

"At least we have a nice view," Mitch Berger, a passenger on the train stuck on the bridge, said in an e-mail as he waited through the outage.

Stranded passengers reported that power started returning about 9:45 a.m. Train service resumed shortly after 10 a.m.

"PATCO communications were satisfactory with periodic updates," said Andrew McLoone, another passenger on the bridge. "About an hour [in], the train got uncomfortable - stuffy, people antsy - so they propped the doors open. Around 9:45, the power went on, lights and A.C."

At 10:07 a.m., passenger Kevin Caviston reported: "Moving now."

Earlier, the railroad had implemented its emergency procedures, sending police and power crews to the stalled cars. Officers started evacuating riders from some stranded trains.

Commuter John Mancini, who got on at the Ashland station for a trip to 16th and Locust Streets, was in a train that stopped in the tunnel outside the Ninth-10th and Locust Street station.

"It was a little hot and a little stuffy, but after 20 minutes they got us to the front of the car and we got out," he said.

Andrew D. Laver was on westbound express when it came to a halt just west of the Haddonfield station.

We "had a great conductor - Ed - who kept us apprised at all times about what was going on. Obviously, there was nothing he or any of us could do, so we made the best of it," he said.

"We read, we talked, some made frantic cell phone calls to work, others napped. Finally got off the train at 16th and Locust at 10:40 a.m.," he said in an e-mail. "Obviously, we were 'lucky' that we weren't in a tunnel (trapped and w/o cell signals) or on the bridge (many of our worst nightmares!), so not an awful situation. At least no one was in danger or hurt."

Jim Burns, 50, arrived at the Eighth and Market Street station around 9:45 a.m. to go home to Collingswood after an eye exam in Center City. When he discovered the trains weren't running, he decided to walk home across the Ben Franklin Bridge.

"So I'm hoofing it across the bridge, and when I get halfway across, I see the trains going," he said. "Unbelievable."

Burns made it to the City Hall station in Camden by 10:40 a.m. He said the experience wasn't entirely a loss. It was the first time he'd walked across the bridge and said he might do it again, though probably he would ride his bicycle across instead.

"It was a beautiful day," he said.

Nancy Eagan, 54, got to Woodcrest station about 8:15 a.m., a few minutes after the train that got stuck on the bridge left. She waited at the station for almost two hours.

Instead of panicking, she met three new friends – all women in their 50s. They chatted about life and how times had changed.

"We sat there and chit-chatted and said we're not going to drive in," said Eagan, who got to the station late from her home in Lumberton because of rubbernecking traffic from a fatal accident on I-295 in Mount Laurel.

One of her new friends took Eagan's number and asked if she wanted to get together later for margaritas.

"I enjoyed it," said Eagan, a construction accountant. "Hopefully, we'll meet up and go to lunch." She added, "Seeing [the accident] this morning and meeting up with these women made me say we need to stop and enjoy where we are."

Her train pulled into Eighth and Market after 10:30 a.m.

PATCO spokeswoman Hunter said a series of electrical problems contributed to the outage. She said the transit agency was in the midst of a two-year program to replace existing wooden power poles with fiberglass poles to "provide long-term reliability of the system, preventing occurrences such as the one that happened today."