Winter snowstorm strands passengers on Amtrak train for 40 hours
Travel chaos caused by Monday’s snowstorm is not limited to the traffic standstill on Interstate 95, with passengers aboard an Amtrak train having been stuck on board for 40 hours.
The Crescent Line, which runs from New Orleans to New York via Atlanta and Washington, DC got stuck north of Lynchburg, Virginia on Monday.
Amtrak officials say that fallen trees have blocked the tracks.
The train initially stopped on Monday morning in an area with no cellphone service nor Wi-Fi signal.
Eventually, around midnight, the train was reversed into the station at Lynchburg, but no announcement was made about what was to happen next.
Prior to that, passengers were informed at approximately 5pm that the train had run out of food, and there were reports of backed-up toilets.
Passenger Sean Thornton told WSB TV: “At some point during the evening a very irate female staff member got on the PA system and basically yelled at everybody to stop complaining to staff and to just call Amtrak headquarters to complain instead.”
He added: “She indicated that the staff also had complaints and that the staff would appreciate customers telling management about their experience. It was pretty shocking.”
When the train returned to Lynchburg, Mr Thornton described what happened next: “Passengers weren’t told that they would be staying in the train for the night. We all just sort of sat up waiting to hear what they would be doing with us and fell asleep wherever we were.”
In the morning they had still not heard anything.
He added: “During the evening one of the passengers arranged for someone to bring water to the train and to pass it around. At around 10 this morning somebody went and obtained a bunch of McDonald’s and passed that around the train.”
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