Bomb scare at 30th Street Station

Trains throughout the entire Northeast corridor were delayed yesterday evening after a bomb scare -- later determined to be a false alarm -- closed downtown Philadelphia's 30th Street Station for about an hour.

The delay occurred at approximately 6:15 p.m., after Amtrak security officials discovered a suspect suitcase during a routine patrol.

"Amtrak police dogs hit on [a suitcase]," Lieutenant Joseph Strollo of the Philadelphia Police Department said. "A perspiring Middle Eastern man left the suitcase in the baggage area."

Upon discovery of the package, officials halted all trains entering and leaving the station and evacuated everyone from the premises.

The delay occurred during the station's peak hours, just as many commuters were heading home.

"I thought it was an accident at first," said Paul Betts, a New Yorker visiting the city for business. He had just arrived at the station when the evacuation began.

"I was hoping to get home at a reasonable time, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen," he said as he waited for the station to reopen.

While Amtrak officials were conducting the preliminary investigation, both the Philadelphia Police and Fire Departments arrived on the scene. Approximately a dozen police officers and 17 fire fighters responded.

"We arrived just as the building was being evacuated," said Lieutenant Dennis Merrigan of the Philadelphia Fire Department. "We stood by and assisted the Amtrak officials."

The 30th Street Station serves Amtrak, the Southeastern Transportation Authority and New Jersey Transit. Hundreds of travelers and station employees were forced to wait outside while police examined the package.

Conrad Hinklemeier, a student traveling from Boston, was just getting off a train when the bomb was discovered.

"They told us to leave [the station]," Hinklemeier said. "Everyone was being evacuated."

Passengers whose trains had not yet arrived at the station remained on the tracks while the investigation was being completed.

"I had no idea what was going on," Tom O'Leary, a college student from New York, said. "They said nothing that would have led us to believe it was a bomb scare."

An Amtrak conductor for one of the delayed trains said that even train officials were uninformed of the details of the incident.

"We just heard that there was police activity," the conductor said shortly after the station reopened.

The bomb squad from the Philadelphia Police Department determined that the scare was a false alarm.

"It was just a suitcase with something like a hair dryer in it," Detective Bill Fiala of the Southwest Detectives Division said. "Nothing came of it."

The station resumed activity at approximately 7:30 p.m.

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