Saturday, October 23, 2004

IT'S BEEN A WHILE...

Or at least it seems like its been a while since the last report of major wire problems on the Reading trunk of the Regional Rail system. At around 8:30am, SEPTA reported catenary damage at Newtown Jct. Several trains, including the #811 (8:16am Fox Chase to Center City and Chestnut Hill West), were held up as crews repaired the damaged wire on 1 and 2 tracks. The 811 had to reverse from Newtown Jct to Cheltenham station to allow the outbound #814 (8:13am Suburban to Fox Chase) to clear the junction at head north to Fox Chase. The 811 finally cleared the junction at 8:53am - nearly 20 minutes behind schedule.

The problems also affected trains on the R2 Warminster, R3 West Trenton, and R5 Lansdale lines towards the end of the AM peak. The #327 (7:44am West Trenton to Elwyn via Center City) - among others - had to be escorted through the incident area by the train crew, also running about 20 minutes late. Through most of the late morning and early afternoon, trains were running with nearly 30 minute delays.

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