PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — SEPTA service has been fully restored after a power outage caused major headaches for riders during Wednesday evening rush hour.
It was around 3 p.m. when, according to SEPTA officials, a blown transformer on the Market-Frankford Line caused a power outage that disrupted the L for about four hours.
During that evening commute, there was no service between 30th Street and Spring Garden stations. Instead, shuttle buses ran east and west between those stops.
The Broad Street Line wasn’t dramatically affected — trains just bypassed the City Hall stop. Still, the evening rush hour was thrown into disarray, with folks like Jerome Baker frustrated at their circumstances.
“I’m really upset with SEPTA right now, because I had somewhere to be at a certain time,” he said, “and I know some things are out of your reach but we need a better solution.”
The interruption resulted in throngs of confused people outside City Hall. Rider Katherine Cruz’s trip home from school was made much more difficult.
“I’m just getting home to make dinner, pretty much,” she said, “but now I don’t know what way to go and how to get there, so I gotta figure it out.”
Another headache for riders like Cruz was smoke rising from underground that people could see and smell. “The smoke feels unsafe for sure. It shouldn’t be something we’re breathing in,” she said.
For a while, officials couldn’t foresee how long the difficulties would last — and there were concerns that service would be suspended into Thursday morning. However, a spokesperson said the damage didn’t end up being as extensive as crews originally thought.
Zee O’Connor’s commute was also affected. Surveying the chaotic rush hour scene at City Hall, he said that these issues are exacerbated by SEPTA’s ongoing funding crisis.
“We need to be funding transit better so that incidents like this can be quickly resolved,” said O’Connor, “or that we can have more consistent service.”