Chaos ensued at one of the busiest airports in the United States as hundreds of passengers faced train delays and large crowds.
A technical issue at Denver International Airport Tuesday morning caused the underground trains between the gates to run at limited capacity, airport spokesperson Ashley Forest told USA TODAY in an email.
The airport said it has employed buses to transport passengers from the main terminal to the concourses. Some passengers flying out of Concourse A should use that security checkpoint and walk across the bridge to their gates.
The airport recommended people arrive 30 minutes earlier than planned, but some frustrated passengers reported waiting up to an hour to reach their gates.
Chris Pino arrived at the airport early morning for his 11 a.m. flight to Williston, North Dakota, he told USA TODAY. After passing through the North Security checkpoint – the only one for TSA Precheck and Clear Plus flyers – Pino went down to the train level to get to his gate in Concourse B only to find what felt like “thousands of passengers in the hallway trying to access one train,” he said.
Pino, who’s flying for work, said trains were arriving at only one side of the platform. “One time while we were waiting, a train on the other side showed up, and everyone stampeded over to that side,” he said.
He estimates waiting nearly an hour to get on a train in sweltering heat because of “all those people down in that little space.” Once on the train, he said it was “jammed to the max.”
No one informed him of the issue, he said. Otherwise, he would have gone through a different security checkpoint to walk to his gate.
As of Tuesday evening, engineers continue working on the issue, but there are no estimates for when the trains will return to running at normal capacity. The airport expects the technical issue to affect operations for the rest of the day.
Kathleen Wong is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Hawaii. You can reach her at [email protected].