Metra Train Evacuates Due to Suspicious Package Found by Passenger

Metra officials and Glen Ellyn Police ordered a westbound Metra train scheduled to arrive at Elburn Station at 5:11 p.m. to stop and evacuate on Friday night due to a suspicious package that a passenger found in a bathroom.

Buses were parked along the Glen Ellyn train station to take passengers to the next stop while police and the DuPage County Bomb Squad investigated the package, which was later deemed not “an explosive or biological threat,” according to a release issued by Glen Ellyn police. 

Andre Wrenn, a conductor on the Metra train, said he was alerted by a passenger in the third car from the rear of the train. The passenger had stepped into the bathroom at the Lombard stop and found the suspicious package placed between the handicap handrails and wall in the bathroom. Wren said the passenger told him, “It’s just didn’t look right.” 

Wrenn described the suspicious package as two glass tubes with a lead pipe connecting them and wires coming out.

Wrenn alerted other Metra Employees and they and the Glen Ellyn police made the call to the stop the train at the Glen Ellyn station and evacuate the passengers.

The train was stopped at Glen Ellyn station at around 4:30 p.m. and held for over an hour while police investigated. When the package was found not to be a threat, police removed it, and the train left the station.

Watch our slideshow below and hear Andre Wrenn’s story.