Irene Khavin has commuted to work on the Manayunk/Norristown line for most of the past 20 years. She’s very familiar with the ups and downs of riding Regional Rail — the occasional cancellations, delays and other snafus that happen from time to time.

But a couple weeks ago, a shortage of train cars one evening created a level of crowding and anxiety she’d rarely ever seen.

“Some people who wanted to get on the train to get home could not — like, physically could not — get onto the train. It was stressful,” said Khavin, a Manayunk resident who works at a University of Pennsylvania immunology lab. “Even if you’re not the one who’s stuck outside the train, it’s still scary when you feel tensions rising around you and you’re packed in like sardines with a lot of other people.”

Irene Khavin

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