DENVER — The trains to gates at the Denver International Airport "temporarily stopped" on Tuesday morning, according to the airport.
The airport announced the issue at 10:27 a.m. on Twitter and said the trains were operational again at 10:51 a.m., though passengers reported a much longer wait.
Travelers on Twitter reported waiting at the train platform area for 45 minutes as of 10:34 a.m.
Passenger Alexis Lengel said she was lucky to get to the airport early, but was still set back about 45 minutes.
"If I would have left later, it would have been a different story and I would have been panicked," she said.
Another passenger, Garrett Burgess, told Denver7 he had waited more than 50 minutes for a train and people were "packed like sardines on the only trams that are here."
Others reported missing their flight.
While airlines were aware of the delay, each one will make the call to hold flights or not, the airport said. According to travelers, at least a few pilots waited for the stuck passengers.
Both north and south security checkpoints were metered during the closure. They were still being metered after the trains started up again to allow the train platforms to clear.
Anybody flying out of the A Gates can use the A Bridge security and walk to the A Gates.
However, DIA does not have a way to walk to any of the other Gates. The airport said it is "exploring other ideas to provide an alternate way to get to B and C" on Tuesday.
Photos show a tightly packed crowd of people waiting near the trains and stopped security lines.
The airport experienced a similar problem on a larger scale last year.
In August, emergency repairs at DIA reduced capacity at the trains and created a 10-hour delay for travelers getting from the terminal to the concourses. After the repairs were complete, the airport said in a statement: "We are committed to exploring options to provide alternate ways to move passengers between the terminal and concourses and improving our process when incidents like this occur." Buses transported passengers while the repairs were made.
As of now, no alternate ideas have been announced.
The airport's CEO, Phil Washington, addressed the August issue in the fall of 2021 during a press conference about solutions to improve the airport. He said he directed a request for information to the private sector on how to resolve the issue of broken trains at the airport. It's not clear if anybody from that sector submitted a viable plan.
"I think we have to understand and do a cost-benefit analysis to say, do you spend $200 or $300 million to do a walkway or a tunnel or something like that?"Washington said in October. "You have to do a cost-benefit analysis to say, you've had this happen once in 26 years. Do you spend that money to solve something that is like the 100-year flood?"
You can watch the 2021 press conference below.
This is a developing story and will be updated.