SEPTA closes Market East Station due to "police activity", strands thousands

[giza]

SEPTA decided to close Market East Station at 7 PM tonight for "police activity". This stranded myself and several thousand commuters both in the city, and in trains on their way to the city. Market East was completely evacuated. At the time I spoke to a SEPTA employee at Suburban Station around 8 PM, he stated that they were waiting on the "all clear" from the police before they could re-open the station.

Despite what the employee told me in the customer service office, he was almost immediately contradicted by a female employee there who stated that it was a "bomb scare" to another passenger.



These were not real times for the trains, but rather estimates on when SEPTA thought they would reopen the station.



A crowd of commuters gather at the closed station. SEPTA really dropped the ball here. They had NO signage or personal on hand. There were a few police officers inside of the station that were completely unhelpful in answering queries from stranded passengers. No announcements were made over the PA at Market East nor Suburban Station. Basically, we were left in the dark as to why the station was closed.



A crowd gathers inside of the customer service office.

I eventually got home with the help of a subway, light rail, and a 1.5 mile walk across town.

Just to underscore my comments above, I'm no security expert--there may have been a very good reason for closing down Market East. SEPTA themselves may have not even had a say in the matter, they might have just been told to close the station by police. What SEPTA could control is how they reacted to this crisis. They could have made announcements. They could have made signs. They could have put notices on the train status boards. And they could have drawn up some emergency action plan in advance, that provided alternate subway/rail/bus paths for passengers to take to their destination.

Did I mention I'm paying $116/month for this? You're doing a heck of a job, SEPTA.

Comments

[firedhusky.livejournal.com]

Fear, they won....

last month we had 2 hazmat BIG incidents...

1 for pool cleaning supplies (aka chlorine)
1 for baking soda...

they though was anthrax... everybody panic and LOTS of people got mobilized.

They put the seed of fear in the compose of America... and the seed grew and we fed it.
thats why we spend millions in HLS and bs flying around.
thas why we cant jump on a plane without feeling weird
but is ok to let ilegals work on IAD.

man, dont people hate when i comment in their LJs :)

[boixboi.livejournal.com]

I was stopped by an occifer of the law on my way into the subway station today after work because I was 'randomly selected' to have my badge swabbed for traces of explosive materials. I was none too happy. I suppose, given this, I should be happy that I was only delayed a few minutes.

[giza.livejournal.com]

Holy shit.

In a public subway station?

You might wanna drop a line to your local ACLU chapter.

[boixboi.livejournal.com]

I may.

Humorously, there was a rally on the subject of immigration
(in support of immigrant rights) going on right next to it. I believe the two were unrelated, as this was just in front of city hall, but the contrast was...something.

[whitefeet.livejournal.com]

Not too likely to do much.

Random bag searches/other searches during normal periods are allowed as long as you're given the option of refusing (they don't necessarily have to tell you you can refuse, and if you do, you won't be allowed to board)

I imagine the permissibility of security checks would be expanded during bomb scares as well.

[whitefeet.livejournal.com]

From what I heard, it was a bomb scare, and I should note that I saw the Philly bomb disposal truck turning onto 9th from Chestnut when I was getting home from work today. Not sure what the contradiction is between police activity and a bomb scare, the first is just a more general term for what was going on.

The problem with those is, you can't make announcements or signs saying "BOMB SCARE" or people get freaked out and panic. The best you can do is a "there is a situation, please leave the area" type notice.

SEPTA wouldn't have had a choice, they would have been told to close, and wouldn't be given an estimate as to when they would reopen (the whole "it's done when it's safe" thing)

I agree that they could have done more to provide alternate routes for people who were stranded (at least at Suburban, it would have been difficult for staff at Market East to do things if they had been forced to evacuate as well). How did you end up getting back home? I know the 44 (I think that's the #) goes to Ardmore, but sounds like you took another route.

[giza.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a generic sign would have been fine. It certainly would have been better than NO sign. :-P

I took the 100 home. The 44 requires me to stand outside at 30th Street station, and the other trains (103, 104, and 106 I think) depart once per hour from 69th Street, whereas the 100 had the most frequent service.

[omnibahumut.livejournal.com]

The 44 also stops at 15th and JFK... i.e. right outside suburban :P

[giza.livejournal.com]

That information really would have been more useful to me YESTERDAY! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wedding_Singer)

[andrew7782.livejournal.com]

It's because some strange guy was taking pictures all over the place!

[talon2303.livejournal.com]

Well.... I would've walked to Suburban. But the first picture there looks like one of the signs in -that- station, too. They close them both down? Suck.

[giza.livejournal.com]

No, but since all trains ran through Market East, they were all out of commission.

[xshengx.livejournal.com]

Dude, that REALLY sucks. Ugh, Market East...I've been stuck there before....not fun.

[mapdark.livejournal.com]

Pretty much what happens here when the metro has to shut down!

I was stuck at the major interline station downtown once and they were supposed to put a special bus service to replace the metro.

I asked the STM lady where we had to go and she told us to go on st-catherine street .. which didn't make sense since the street was closed to traffic for the whole summer because of the gay pride and eveything.

So I went up there anyways and of course there was a bunch of people there waiting for a bus that wouldn't come obviously ..

I went back downstairs to ask her how much time the thing would last .. she didn't know .. i told her that there was no bus up at street level and she said she didn't know about that either ..

So I had to WALK the 7 stations to my destination.

Ok .. the rates are much lower for the monthly passes here 65$..

but I still find it unnacceptable and I know how it felt for you man!