Every November, usually mid-month, a traffic and transit report on on the local news radio station(1060AM) warns listeners of delayed regional rail trains. The cause of the delay is a gift from mother nature in the form of falling leaves.
During the fall season tens of thousands of leaves fall from their trees in the Delaware Valley. Wind carries them from a couple of feet to a few hundred miles from their origins. Wet leaves tend to carry further in the wind and find their way onto the tracks of SEPTA's rail lines and can cause schedule nightmares by making them extremely slippery.
One of these such nightmares occurred on Friday when the transportation system was pushed beyond capacity before, during and after the Phillies' championship parade. Local resident's were urged to take public transportation into the city for fear the roads could not support the number of automobiles.
"We were all set to go," said Dale Rocco, a SEPTA official, referring to the authority's preparedness for the parade,"and then the leaves began to get all over the tracks. We weren't expecting this on the last day of October."
At about 2AM on Friday morning a conductor shutting down a passenger car noticed a single leaf on the tracks near Paoli station on the R5 line.
"I was like 'this is gonna get ugly and silly' because when one leaf falls a whole lot of them fall," said conductor, Karen Thompson. "I called my supervisor and that was that."
A stiff southwesterly wind began to blow from the southwesterly and soon the tracks were covered with about twenty-five leaves. Similar reports were filed from stations along the R1, R2, R3, R4, R6, and R7 lines. Chalfont station reported 32 leaves on the tracks at 4AM.
When service began in the morning SEPTA officials ordered all inbound trains not to make any scheduled stops out of fear the cars would be unable to stop. Some stations were so conjested with Phillies fans that crowds were 50 deep in some places.
In Ardmore fans got word of why the trains were not stopping and began to pick the leaves off of the tracks.
"We started clearing the tracks but they kept falling. I would point out all of the leaves to make sure people saw them," said Sarah Dieglz, a Phillies fan from Ardmore.
Clearing the tracks made no difference as trains continued to pass full stations. Many missed the parade and SEPTA finally issued and apology.
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