A woman in her 40s was struck by a train at SEPTA's Secane Station late Thursday night and survived, according to transit officials. The strike happened around 11:15 p.m. after the woman fell onto the tracks while walking on the platform at the Delaware County station, located in Upper Darby Township along the Media/Wawa Line. She was taken to a hospital, and officials have released no additional information about her condition.
SEPTA said train service continued to operate after the incident, though riders faced delays Thursday night, according to 6abc Philadelphia. Few other details have been released about how the woman ended up on the tracks or what led up to the strike.
A Station Built to Keep People Off the Tracks
SEPTA held a ribbon-cutting for a new Secane Station in September 2019, as reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Media/Wawa Line itself has seen changes recently too. It was extended 3.5 miles to Wawa Station in August 2022 following a $5.4 million, 10-year naming rights deal, a rebranding of the former Media/Elwyn Line, according to WHYY. The extension brought the line to Wawa Station.
Not the First Late-Night Strike on This Stretch of Track
Thursday's incident is not the first time this exact corridor has seen a late-night collision. In September 2025, an inbound Media/Wawa Regional Rail train struck and killed a person on the tracks between Morton and Secane stations around 11:30 p.m., part of a string of SEPTA rail fatalities that disrupted Delaware County service, per Billy Penn. That roughly 8.5-hour span, from about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday to about 8 a.m. Thursday, saw three separate major SEPTA accidents, including two fatal train strikes and a trolley overhead-wire collapse in Delaware County in which all 10 passengers and the operator reported injuries, requiring emergency shuttle buses to keep passengers moving.
More recently, Hoodline reported on a fatal strike at Darby Station on September 18, 2026, which forced a temporary suspension of service along the Wilmington/Newark Line.
Why Trains Can't Stop in Time
General transit safety guidance notes that a train weighing 1 million pounds requires significant distance to stop, according to Mass Transit. Trains hold right-of-way over all vehicles and pedestrians at rail crossings, leaving engineers with little ability to react once someone is on the tracks.
Darby Station has signs bearing the 988 helpline number. It remains unknown how the woman accessed the track area late Thursday night, and officials have not said whether the intrusion was accidental or intentional.
The Federal Transit Administration has issued Safety Advisory 25-1. For now, SEPTA has not indicated any changes to track access at Secane Station following Thursday's strike, and the woman's condition remains unreported.
