Market East "Bomb Scare" 10/7/2005

Market East was shut down this morning at about 9am when a conductor reported a "person of interest" on the train dressed in fatigues and carrying a backpack. Turned out he had a propane tank nozzle.

Seems like SEPTA is getting a little too vigilant as well. Turned out the guy was homeless, and was probablly trying to cash in the nozzle. The news said he was being charged. Anyone know with what?

All of theses scares and shutdowns are getting a bit rediculous like the one in Penn Station today because of a coke can with some draino in it.

Sadly, these are the times we live in. If the train crews and other front line SEPTA employees were not so "cautious" they wouldn't be during their jobs. Sir, we are in a state of 'heightened security'. What would you have them(mass transit operations ie SEPTA) do instead? I agree that sometimes the response seems a bit overzealous; but, when it comes to potential threats against peoples' lives, I don't think any measure is overzealous, even if it means delaying trains for a Coke bottle or a Propane tank nozzle.

I agree. Other than their halting the train at Market East instead of at Temple University (it was a train coming in from Norristown and Conshohocken), SEPTA handled this appropriately. There were credible threats in New York, and SEPTA didn't order the evacuation until the K-9 team sensed something suspicious with the bag in question.

One interesting visual that came of this though was an entire trainload of people getting off at North Broad and walking down into the Lehigh Ave station. One thing that impressed me was the express train that stopped to pick up some of the riders, even though it wasn't an express stop. Of course that and the next local were both already full of people from Fern Rock, but it was an unusually nice effort. Better would have been an extra train that only stopped to pick up the displaced regional rail riders, though.

PARailWiz wrote:One interesting visual that came of this though was an entire trainload of people getting off at North Broad and walking down into the Lehigh Ave station. One thing that impressed me was the express train that stopped to pick up some of the riders, even though it wasn't an express stop. Of course that and the next local were both already full of people from Fern Rock, but it was an unusually nice effort.

Was it a Walnut express or a Ridge Ave. express? The Ridge trains do stop at North Phila.

Matthew Mitchell wrote:Other than their halting the train at Market East instead of at Temple University (it was a train coming in from Norristown and Conshohocken), SEPTA handled this appropriately.

It was the conductor on the R6 who noticed the individual and notified SEPTA police.

we are in a state of 'heightened security'

More like hightened paranoia. But we do what we have to I suppose. I'd still like to know if this person was arrested. I could have swore I heard a news report about him being chared. Sad that we now have to "look" normal to keep attention from being diverted to ourselves.

I can't wait to see what this winter is like with everyone wearing hats and jackets. Are we all going to be suspected of "having something under the jacket"? While a small delay is a fraction of a price to pay for remaining safe----even better, alive, I can't help but get annoyed at delays for trivial issues. No offense, but we're not New York. If DHS classifies shady individuals as persons of interest, they might as well lock down all of North Philadelphia.

The part that does annoy me is these cops come out of the woodwork to tackle some guy toting a propane tank nozzle (hardly contraband---I could see if he had a propane tank), but the cops are nowhere to be seen when I'm being harassed by an agressive panhandler, or having racial slurs slung at me beacuase I'm white and waiting for a subway at Broad & Olney. Everyday crime continues to go unchecked. We have "increased security" but only for extreme issues. If more cops are out there being vigilant, lets really make the system safe.

So now what? I frequently pass through Market East Terminal in my US Army fatigues that have my rank, name, and US Army on them with my big green Special Forces laptop bag over my shoulder. I have never been singled out or searched. They nailed a homeless man in fatigues with a big bag and a propane nozzle, does this mean that they are going to stop and search me when I am a clearly identified ranking officer in the United States Army with my big green laptop bag over my shoulder?

Ed

rrbluesman wrote:So now what?

Here is the text of the seat drop released by SEPTA. The situation got interesting when the K9 got a hit on the suspect.

A Message to SEPTA Customers from General Manager Faye Moore


This morning, many of you experienced significant travel delays on our Regional Rail system while SEPTA and the Philadelphia Police investigated the reports of a suspicious individual on board one of our trains.



I’m certain you will be hearing about this on the news, but I wanted to provide you with an accounting of the events. At about 7:06 a.m., the conductor on an R6 train traveling towards Center City noticed an individual who was behaving suspiciously and carrying a backpack. In light of heightened safety alerts for transit, our train personnel took proactive measures by speaking with this person. Given the nature of his responses the conductor notified SEPTA Transit Police with a request to meet the train. Since the train was just entering the Commuter Tunnel, the Police at Market East Station were called.



Our Officers removed the individual from the train. When a Transit Police K9 dog was brought to the scene it made a “positive hit” on the individual. At this point, we called in the Philadelphia Police Bomb Squad and a team from the Police Academy was dispatched. At that time it was determined that the K9 dog had “hit” on the nozzle for a camping-type propane tank. In subsequent tests, after this individual was taken into custody, canines from SEPTA Transit Police and the Philadelphia Police Department also made positive hits on his clothing.



Of the hundreds of suspicious individuals and/or package reports we have investigated since the 9/11/2001, this was the first time a K9 dog made a positive hit.



I apologize to everyone stuck on a SEPTA train and for any inconvenience created by this morning’s severe delays, but I am proud of the quick and appropriate actions taken by all SEPTA Operations and Police personnel. Every indication pointed to a serious situation and it is our obligation, in safeguarding our riders and the system, to treat all reports as real until proven otherwise.



While it may have taken a little longer than we all would have liked to complete this morning’s investigation, in light of recent reports about the New York City Subway system we took every security measure we believed necessary.



I would like to take this chance to remind everyone to be aware of your surroundings at all times and to immediately report any suspicious items or individuals on the SEPTA system to a uniformed SEPTA employee or SEPTA Transit Police Officer.



I greatly appreciate the calm and patience displayed by most of our customers this morning and I thank you for your understanding as we work to make your travels as safe as possible.



Thank you



Faye Moore

General Manager

I guess what one would consider 'suspicious' is a judgement call. Conductors typically ride the same route everyday and encounter pretty much the same people everyday. If a crew member spots someone whom he or she may feel warrants suspition, enough so that it merits calling for police assistance, in a post 9/11 world I just cannot fault them for being overcautious. It is frustrating that 'suspicious' or 'unattended' packages have halted many a rush hour; it is frustrating that 'bomb' scares have halted transit on several occassions. Gentlemen, until someone can come up with a better solution to deal with such events, I think we'll all just have to lump it. One day, and i hope this never happens, God forbid this ever happens, but one day one of those suspicious people or packages could be the real mccoy. Who will argue then.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about the issue. I appreciate the awareness of train crews but in the end the whole event didn't amount to much, so it just became another day in a series of awful morning commutes last week. (Anyone who rode the Great Valley Flyer in the morning knows what I mean.) Something tells me that events of this nature will follow the same pattern, but one never knows. As I said in the heading: mixed feelings.

However, this time I think SEPTA did a pretty admirable job trying to accomodate displaced passengers. Market East is the station I use. The GVF got parked at 30th Street. By 7.45 they weren't allowing anymore trains in the tunnel on the PRR side. (Someone I know from the Reading side said the train went through ME but didn't stop. She was left as Suburban.) Many of us ended up on the MFE, which apparently was running. (Although nobody was around to confirm that.) They waved us through without really checking passes or tickets. The MFE was there in a flash and packed very quickly. I got of at 11th Street without a problem and was at work 10 minutes later than usual. Not bad considering.

PARailWiz wrote:
One interesting visual that came of this though was an entire trainload of people getting off at North Broad and walking down into the Lehigh Ave station. One thing that impressed me was the express train that stopped to pick up some of the riders, even though it wasn't an express stop. Of course that and the next local were both already full of people from Fern Rock, but it was an unusually nice effort.

Was it a Walnut express or a Ridge Ave. express? The Ridge trains do stop at North Phila.

It may well have been, I'm not familiar enough with either to tell the difference. I do remember that the green lights were lit on the front of the train, though, if that clarifies.

Green denotes a Walnut train

It was probably an express going to city hall. if you had gone to 8th & Mkt the train would have been so tiny and you would have noticed the different station destination and route.

However I notice sometimes the yellow and green lights on the trains can be deceptive. During some times they change to indicate whether or not they are through trains to Fern Rock, and inconsistent at that. Confused the hack out me first time I'd seen it switch while pulling into a station.

Don H wrote:(Anyone who rode the Great Valley Flyer in the morning knows what I mean.)

Wednesday, it was 524 that fouled things up. Consist was all SIVs, (F-B) 163-164-453-454-289. We lost power around Overbrook and coasted to a stop by the service facility. Word came surprisingly quickly that the front car's pantograph was damaged, but we could probably make it in to 30th St. Power came back up shortly, but we were told we needed to wait for the train in front of us, which was also having problems. I think we moved to the inside track and passed that train (9002?). We got to Powelton Yard, and then stopped for maintenance workers to inspect the pan. After a wait, it was determined that we could proceed into 30th St, but at walking speed so the workers could watch us all the way in. It was slow going from there, slower going under the high line and then up to the platform. We were only allowed in as far as the back door on the lead car. It was about 8.30 by this time - we were due in to 30th at 7.41. We filed forward to exit the train - I'm pretty sure 163-164 didn't have lights - can SIVs get hotel from other cars in the consist? On looking at the pan upon exiting the train, it looked like the normally concave down pickup had been rotated forwards or backwards 180 degrees, so it was concave up instead. I have no idea what we hit. The Flyer and one other train were stuck behind us while we were getting inspected at Powelton - they switched to track 1 as we were pulling in to 30th St.