Passengers on a rush-hour Lakeshore East express GO train endured a more than three-hour delay after their train suffered a complete breakdown on Tuesday, sitting stationary on the tracks without power or air-conditioning.

The train departed as usual from Toronto's Union Station at 4:30 p.m., arriving on time at Ajax Station. But shortly after pulling away from the station, the train came to a stop and staff announced that there were mechanical problems.

"Sometimes that happens, no big deal. But the minutes turned into half an hour, an hour," passenger Jennifer Alsop-Lee told CBC News. "We knew we weren't going anywhere for quite some time."

They were right. The train sat still for three hours, according to passengers who were just metres away from the platform at Ajax.

'Something is definitely wrong'

Metrolinx spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins told CBC News the train suffered a total breakdown and completely lost power. At first, crews tried to fix it but it soon became apparent that they needed to bring in another train to tow it toward a station where passengers could safely get off.

"It was just an unfortunate sequence of events," Aikins said. Being rush hour, the tracks were congested with trains. And making matters worse was a major gas leak that Aikins says shut down the entirety of the Barrie corridor because it posed a safety concern.

That meant staff that could have been deployed to the Lakeshore train had to instead be sent to the Barrie corridor area, something Aikins said made an already inconvenient situation for passengers that much worse.

"To move us out from that spot, if it is taking three hours then something is definitely wrong," passenger Afoul Medhekar said. "You can't hold 500, 600 or 1000 people with no HVAC and not very significant updates," he said.

<a href="https://twitter.com/GOtransit">@GOtransit</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/f4nja">@f4nja</a> Hundreds of us stranded. Big job to fix but we need more info. —@Jhefley

Husband drives to Toronto and back as wife stranded

Meanwhile Alsop-Lee says her husband drove from their home, just north of Whitby, to Toronto, played a 6:30 p.m. basketball game there and drove back -- passing the stalled train -- while his wife was sitting inside stuck, unable to disembark.

"I can't believe you're still on that train," he said to her on the phone.

"He went to Toronto and back in the same amount of time that I sat on that train," Alsop-Lee said. "But there was no way he could help get us off because we were in between stations and stuck there."

Passenger Christopher Pang told CBC News passengers took turns sharing seats on the crowded train as the temperature climbed and the sun set leaving those inside with only minimal emergency lighting.

Passenger Christopher Pang told CBC News passengers took turns sharing seats on the crowded train as the temperature climbed and nightfall leaving those inside with only minimal emergency lighting. (Michael Charles Cole/CBC)

"What if this was something more serious, like a terrorist incident, a fire, a collision? What if passengers had gotten seriously ill?" Pang asked. "What will they do when this is something more serious (God forbid)?"

Refunds coming, Metrolinx says

Medhekar agrees. "That's what emergency planning is for. You think of the worst situation and prepare for a disaster but unfortunately I think there was lack in response."

Aikins says in the event of an emergency, manual releases are available to be used by staff or passengers themselves to open the doors, but that simply letting people walk off onto the tracks would not have been a safe way to resolve the situation.

Anyone affected by the delay can go online to the GO website and enter their train number to have their fare returned to their Presto card, she said. "They absolutely get their money back."

Alsop-Lee would have normally been home at around 5:30 p.m. but on Tuesday she walked in the door at 9 p.m. and still needed to have dinner and put her children to bed.

She says she understand there are safety measures to be followed, but thinks GO Transit could have handled the situation much better.

"I would have rather them shut down the tracks for 10 minutes and let us get off the train."