PHILADELPHIA -- You could call it the donnybrook in Marcus Hook, the Philadelphia Daily News reports.

A fight that erupted last week between a conductor and the engineer aboard a commuter train filled with horrified passengers was over how slow the train was being operated, union officials said.

SEPTA said the fight got physical and has fired the two employees. Union officials said the dispute had been verbal.

"The conductor didn't like the way the engineer was running the train; it wasn't running fast enough, and they had words," said Tom Dorricott, spokesman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.

Soon after the train that originated in Newark, Del., left the Marcus Hook station on March 19 at about 4:30 p.m., the engineer pulled the emergency valve that stops the train.

The disagreement continued, but Dorricott said it never got physical.

"There's every indication it was a verbal discussion, not a big knock-down, drag-out," Dorricott said. "No one was scratched or bruised."

Dorricott said it would have been virtually impossible for a physical fight to occur while the train was moving because of the required safety throttle known as the "dead-man's pedal," which stops the train when pressure on the pedal is released.

But SEPTA management said a physical confrontation had occurred.

"You were right, it was a fight," said SEPTA spokesman Jim Whitaker. "We're not sure whether that means just some pushing and shoving."

Whether it was an argument or an attack, SEPTA management was notified of the incident and immediately removed both 17-year SEPTA employees from service. They were fired three days later, Whitaker said.

Phoned-in complaints by some passengers to SEPTA described a fistic confrontation.

"They described a fight they thought to be so forceful that, in light of September 11, they thought the train was being taken over," said Jim Jordan, assistant general manager for loss prevention, risk and claims management.

Jordan was not made aware of the incident until Monday morning because there was no safety issue involved, Whitaker said.

The president of a rail passenger advocacy organization said the incident points out the inefficiency of the SEPTA hierarchy.

"There are plenty of supervisors there; they just have to do a better job," said Don Nigro, president of the Delaware Valley Association of Rail Passengers.