A mechanical problem halted the slow trains Denver International Airport For almost two hours on Wednesday afternoon, supporting hundreds of travelers and forcing some to miss flights.
The outage began at 2:42 p.m., airport officials announced in a message after on the social media site X. Travelers posted photos showing the disruptions, with people waiting for trains and frowning at their smartphones.
At 4 p.m., the trains resumed operations at a reduced capacity and became fully operational around 4:30 p.m., airport officials said.
The unspecified mechanical problem “damaged a portion of the track,” DIA officials said in an email. “Technicians repaired the damaged section in just over an hour. During this time, trains were able to run, but at limited capacity, causing crowds at security checkpoints and on train platforms.”
The federal Transportation Security Administration has added staffers at checkpoints to speed the flow of travelers. Airport officials said the bridge security checkpoint would remain open until 6:30 p.m.
Airport officials said they were not aware of any flights that had been delayed due to the train disruption.
For Sydney Balsamo and her two friends from Denver, who were heading for Labor Day weekend, the delays reached first in a security line, lasting more than an hour, Balsamo said. They then entered a crowded train waiting area in an attempt to reach Concourse C for their Southwest Airlines flight to Chicago, she said. They missed it and then missed another hastily rebooked flight.
“We have now missed two flights,” Balsamo said around 4:40 p.m
“But we are booked for a third. This has permanently changed our travel plans. We took work off. And now we’re going to sit at the airport for another five hours,” she said.
“The communication was really bad. We were told there were no trains. Then we heard from some security officers that they were going to stop flights. Then we received a message from Southwest that our flight had departed.”
Trains ran every 15 minutes instead of the usual 2 minutes, she said.
DIA’s security checkpoints in the south and west continued during the train disruption.
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