PATCO general manager apologizes for train stranded on bridge

PATCO passengers should not have had to wait for more than an hour on a train stranded over the Delaware River on Saturday with little information or assistance, PATCO general manager John Rink said Wednesday.

Rink apologized at the monthly board meeting of PATCO's parent, the Delaware River Port Authority.

"We could have done a better job of communicating with passengers . . . and with the general public," Rink said. "The train was stopped on the bridge far too long before the notification of DRPA leadership and the public."

A train bound from Philadelphia to New Jersey, filled with pre-St. Patrick's Day revelers - many reportedly inebriated - was disabled on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday.

Rink said the cause was a broken pipe supplying air to the brakes. Workers tried to repair the malfunction before calling for a train to rescue the passengers.

The stranded riders were picked up by the second train about 7:30. The rescue train coupled with the disabled train and passengers walked through the doors between the cars.

"It took more than an hour, which is an hour too long," Rink said Wednesday. He acknowledged that it was "not unreasonable" for passengers to get nervous and upset when they got scant information from the train operator about the delay.

He said PATCO would "reeducate train operators in communication and safety protocols." And he said PATCO would promptly notify DRPA police of train malfunctions so the police can quickly aid passengers and prevent people from venturing onto the tracks.

Two passengers who got off the train Saturday and began walking along the tracks were arrested.

DRPA Chairman David Simon said the incident was "a communications failure caused by an equipment failure."

"We do not want to see a recurrence," Simon said.

DRPA officials were mum about the agency's legal settlement with its fired corporate secretary, former Pennsylvania legislator John Lawless.

The Inquirer reported Wednesday that, after spending more than a half-million dollars in legal fees, the DRPA agreed to pay Lawless about one year's salary. He was collecting $123,806 a year when he was escorted from his office by DRPA police on April 23, 2010.

Lawless, 55, contended in a federal lawsuit that he was fired after he took two weeks of vacation in December 2009 to seek treatment for alcoholism.

The DRPA, in its court filings, denied that, and said that Lawless' position was a "political placement" and that he "was removed from that position for political reasons."

Details of the settlement were not disclosed, and DRPA officials said Wednesday they could not discuss ongoing litigation.

One DRPA official said after the meeting that Lawless initially demanded more than $3 million. Lawless' attorney, Michael Salmanson of Philadelphia, denied that.

"If the DRPA contends that Mr. Lawless ever demanded $3 million, that contention is unequivocally false," Salmanson said. "Mr. Lawless never demanded, at any stage of this process, a settlement in excess of $300,000."