Passengers Stuck For Two Hours On Disabled Red Line Train
CAMBRIDGE (CBS) - The Red Line went nowhere fast on Tuesday morning after two trains broke down, stranding hundreds of passengers for hours.
A Red Line train stalled between the Porter Square and Harvard Square stations at around 10:30 a.m. MBTA officials blamed a mechanical problem, leaving 447 passengers stranded.
Passenger Photos: Red Line Evcauations
"There was no smoke or fire, there was just a mechanically disabled train," said Dep. Chief Gerry Mahoney of the Cambridge Fire Department.
WBZ-TV's Kate Merrill reports.
A second train arrived to help transport the passengers, but it also stalled, meaning the 447 passengers needed to evacuate and walk out of the tunnel.
"So we all got out, walked through the cars, it was the whole train disabled in the tunnel, and we walked down the track, back out to Porter and up and they gave us water," said Melanie Manoach, a stranded passenger.
For most of the time passengers were in the dark, they didn't even know they were stranded. It wasn't until they were told they would have to evacuate and walk that they had any idea something was wrong.
"They kept saying at some point we were gonna keep moving and 'Don't worry, we're gonna be moving.' I guess they did the best they could, and then they said there was a disabled train and we didn't know it was us, but we figured it out when they told us we were gonna evacuate," said Manoach.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Lana Jones reports.
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The air conditioning stayed on for most of the time on the stuck train, so passengers weren't sweltering. No injuries were reported.
Service was disrupted for some time Tuesday, but trains were running again on-schedule by 1:30 p.m. There were no related delays to report Tuesday afternoon and evening.
