Wendy Whiteside and her friend Amy came to Denver for a Matt Rice comedy show and stayed for the Rockies season opener.

She never thought her visit to Colorado’s most populous city would turn into a chaotic adventure that involved jumping off a train, climbing over a gate and missing her flight home.

Not to mention a standoff involving the train’s escape ladder.       

Whiteside, a nurse from Seattle, was one of about 40 passengers on the Regional Transportation District’s A Line train who ultimately ended up up jumping ship along the tracks about a quarter of a mile short of the Central Park Station.

After the Rockies game, Whiteside and her friend hopped on the A Line headed for Denver International Airport to catch their flights back to Seattle and Portland. Then the train suddenly came to a halt at 12:48 p.m.

Whiteside said that, during the delay, there was very little communication with passengers, but roughly an hour later, passengers were told that RTD was bringing another train to push them into the Central Park Station. That train arrived roughly another hour later.

But neither train moved.

Eventually, one of the other passengers contacted RTD by phone, she said. 

“He was told that this train was going to push us to the next station and then we were going to get off and have to catch another train,” Whiteside said. “We sat there for probably another 30 minutes with no update and still they told us we couldn’t get off the train.”

“They never asked how we were doing,” she said. 

By that time, Whiteside, who is a diabetic, was feeling unwell because there was no food or water available. She said she and others also needed to use a toilet.

Whiteside said the other passenger called the train dispatch center again and was told that all passengers were off the halted train and were now on the rescue train.

That, she said, was not true.

While she waited, Whiteside contacted Alaska Airlines to explain her dilemma. The airline told her she would not be reimbursed for missing her flight, which departed at 3:50 p.m. 

Whiteside said that, from the time the train stopped at 12:48 p.m., the driver — on the orders, she presumed, of an unidentified supervisor — refused to open the doors and let the passengers off.

That’s when things escalated. 

At about 2:45 p.m., another passenger broke the emergency glass on the emergency door release and opened the door at the front of the train.

The driver, said Whiteside, took the emergency escape ladder out but would not put it out the door — and instead set it across the open door as RTD personnel outside told passengers they could not get off the train.

Soon passengers started jumping from the train to the railbed anyway and began throwing luggage over the chain-link fence along the tracks. They also started climbing over a gate that the RTD personnel refused to open.

“There was a lady — like transit police or whoever it was — on the other side of the fence, and we could see her start walking towards the front of the train yelling at everyone that they can’t get off,” Whiteside said. “They refused to put the ladder down so we could get off, and then they refused to unlock the gate, so they had people jumping the fence.”

Whiteside said the driver still refused to put the ladder down, again on orders of a supervisor. 

“I said, ‘I’m getting off this train’ and she’s telling the driver — she said lock the door. And I was like, ‘You’re not locking this door,’” said Whiteside. “I said, I’m getting off right now. And then I said, ‘If you’re not going to let me off, then you need to call the police. You’re not keeping me hostage on here any longer.’”

Whiteside jumped off the train onto the rocky railbed below, and fell on the rocks, bruising her arm and her ribs.

About that time, she said nine or 10 police officers showed up on Smith Road with lights and sirens. But, she said, no police officers talked to the passengers. Instead, they conferred with RTD personnel and eventually left. There were no arrests.

After climbing the gate, Whiteside said she and her friend called an Uber and spent $50 getting to DIA. She was able to book another flight and arrived back home in Seattle at 2 a.m. Her friend Amy’s flight left at 7:30 for her home in Portland.

All told, Whiteside said the debacle cost her about $600.

RTD spokesperson Stuart Summers confirmed that the A line was disabled near Central Park Station because of mechanical issues.

“A rescue train and bus shuttle were dispatched to safely remove customers from the disabled train as soon as was practicable” at approximately 2 p.m. on Sunday, Summers said, adding that the transit agency takes customer safety seriously.

He said passengers “cannot de-board in locations along the rail alignment that are not deemed safe.”

“With the assistance of the train crew, some customers were able to safely deboard the train using an emergency exit,” Summers added. “The remaining customers were taken by an RTD bus to the next A Line station. While these types of incidents are rare, RTD and DTP/DTO understands that they are inconvenient and apologizes to all customers impacted by the delay.”

Whiteside said she was upset.

“I feel like it was handled unprofessionally,” said Whiteside. “I’m a registered nurse. I’ve done quality control for 10 years. I felt like they didn’t know what they were doing. They were unprepared. I understand there’s probably risks associated with it, and rules, but there was literally a gate that they could have unlocked right there.”

“I think they should issue an apology,” Whiteside added. “I think they need to train their employees a little bit better, and I feel like I deserve to be reimbursed for the flight and the Uber we had to pay for.”

As for the Rockies season opener, Whiteside said, “I didn’t realize how big opening day is.”