Mom: SEPTA's Christmas baby doing just fine

LITTLE KRIS LI is the talk of the town.

His mom, Yanjin Li, beamed with pride yesterday afternoon while talking about her son's much publicized entrance into the world Thursday night on a Market-Frankford El train.

"Thank you to everyone who helped," an exhausted Li, 27, told the Daily News during a bedside interview in Hahnemann University Hospital. "It was so scary."

Li started having contractions Thursday afternoon, around the time other families were sitting down to Christmas dinner. She and her husband Binqing, 28, hopped aboard an El train near their West Philly home and were rushing to Hahnemann.

But as the crowded train rattled toward Center City, Li's contractions started to get more intense.

Just before 6 p.m., Li's pain reached its zenith.

"Philly, my baby is coming," she screamed.

Kris couldn't wait any longer.

"I didn't know what to do. The baby was just coming out," Li said.

Thanks to some quick-thinking passengers and two diligent SEPTA Transit Police Officers, Li's bundle of joy was delivered safely in the bowels of the 15th Street El stop, across the street from the City Hall of his new hometown.

Those officers, Sgt. Daniel Caban and Officer Darrell James, visited Li at the hospital early yesterday to check in on the family.

In addition to well-wishes, the pair brought a care package for Kris: a SEPTA T-shirt and a stuffed subway train car, a souvenir to commemorate his wild ride into life.

Kris' parents, who moved to Philly about 8 years ago from their native Fujian, China, are doing well and looking forward to taking their son home.

But why Kris? Well, that's an easy one, according to Li.

"He was born on Christmas," she said with a smile. "It seemed like the right thing to do."

Caban and James also did the right thing, springing into action after other passengers on the train alerted them to Li's emergency.

"People told me that there would be crazy days like this. They just never said they would be on Christmas," James said Thursday night, a few hours after he and Caban helped deliver Kris.

Both officers described the incident as a "blessing," a holiday memory that they won't soon forget.

"When I left this morning for work, I thought I had opened all my presents," Caban said. "I didn't realize I had another one waiting for me around 5:53 [p.m]."

One of the Li family's fellow passengers, Sunny Ali, said the sight of the birth brought the strangers on the train together.

"Some people started tearing up, saying, 'Merry Christmas,' " said Ali, 29, who was sitting directly behind Li when she went into labor.

"Honestly, I started tearing up a bit, too. I was just so overwhelmed."