To the editor:

I am writing to express how appalled I was in my experience with the commuter rail Saturday night.

My husband and I were spending the weekend in Boston and decided to take the commuter rail to Salem.

When we arrived at North Station we purchased our tickets. We then went to the customer service glass-enclosed booth, where a woman on the phone refused to even acknowledge our existence. We rang the bell there, knocked on the window, and waved, but the woman in the booth refused to even look up.

We asked a cleaning employee who was passing by, but he did not know where to direct us and said, "You'll have to ask customer service," pointing to the woman on the phone, still enthralled with her phone conversation and still ignoring our presence.

Finally we asked a fellow commuter, who directed us to the station next door. Around 5 p.m. we got on the train with little problem, except for the extreme amount of disorganization that seemed to fill the entire train station.

When we arrived in Salem, we noticed a strong police presence, which made me feel very comfortable and safe.

We decided to head back to Boston at about 8:30 p.m. We walked to the Salem train station — and it was anarchy.

There were hundreds of people huddled together waiting for the train to arrive. While we were waiting we spoke with a few people who said how they had been denied admittance to the last train because it was full, and they were told by police to form a line, though the police did not enforce this.

In addition the trains were running on a normal schedule, every hour; and I was under the impression from reading the Web site that the commuter rail was adding additional trains due to the expected large number of people using it on Halloween night. This was not the case, however, from what I learned listening to the people in the groups waiting for the train.

When the train arrived, everyone started pushing forward, and the police did absolutely nothing to deter the crowd from this. I can only say it was like something out of a movie — hundreds of people pushing together trying to secure a place on the train. Neither the conductors nor the police did anything, there was no order whatsoever.

The enormous crowd pushed and pushed forward. Now, I am nearly six months pregnant, and all I can say is thank God I was with my husband. He had his arms around my stomach to protect us (my unborn baby and me). I was crying hysterically from fear of what might happen. The pushing continued for 10 minutes until we got on the train.

I don't doubt for a second that, had I been alone and if I had fallen down, this huge mass of people would have simply crushed me.

When I got on the train I immediately started having cramps. I cannot believe that something like this can happen in America. The police were everywhere at the station and yet nothing was done to organize this.

I blame the commuter rail as much as law enforcement for not having ample train service for what was anticipated to be a very busy night, and for not taking the responsibility for organizing and implementing proper waiting protocols like having a line in place using rails, string, a painted line on the ground, something to bring some sense of order to the train station.

Maureen G. Lobenstein

Massapequa, N.Y.