It's happened before, but not exactly like this. The PATCO transit line that connects Center City with the South Jersey suburbs travels over the Ben Franklin Bridge everyday, saving thousands of commuters the hassle and cost of city parking. Every so often you'll hear something about a PATCO train breaking down, which comes at no surprise (considering it still uses its original cars from the moon landing era).
Cue Saturday night, 6PM. The PATCO train crossing the bridge grinds to a stop, where it sits for about an hour and a half. Frustrated passengers like Brett Hopkins took to Twitter looking for updates from @RidePATCO but found nothing. He waited for an announcement over the PA. Still nothing. According to one of Hopkins's tweets (@brettzo), no announcements were made until about 10 minutes into the ordeal.
To top it all off, several passengers had already hit the sauce in anticipation of a big St. Patrick's Day celebration that night, so some could be seen relieving their bladders between cars. Peeing. Off a disabled train. Into the Delaware River. Some 100-plus feet up in the air.
Well, that's the first time a paragraph like that has been published on Curbed.
In a world where we're so accustomed to immediate feedback, how bad did PATCO
drop the ball on this one? Take a look at SEPTA's Twitter page (@SEPTA) for example.
SEPTA operates dozens of rail and bus lines while taking the time to tweet frequent
updates to its followers. With PATCO operating one single line, shouldn't it be easier to
keep its passengers updated?
· PATCO Passengers Stranded on the Ben Franklin Bridge [Philly.com]
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