Amtrak Passengers Stuck On Trains For Over 30 Hours By Snowstorm

Downed trees in Virginia led to chaos for customers on Amtrak trains

By Ryan Erik King
Yesterday 7:30PM

The same snowstorm that halted highway traffic across Virginia earlier this week also caused lengthy delays on Amtrak. Several Amtrak trains were stopped in Virginia due to track conditions. Operational problems were compounded by poor customer service and communication aboard trains and with call centers. The situation was dire enough to garner criticism from Virginia’s delegation to the U.S. Senate.

From regional services to New York-bound, long-distance trains traveling from as far as New Orleans or Miami were stuck on the rails in Virginia. Downed trees were Amtrak’s most cited reason for the delays. Passengers reported that trains ran out of food and onboard toilets began to overflow. One customer abandoned the train and hitchhiked to a nearby hotel. Traincrew yelled at passengers via the PA system to stop complaining to them and to call Amtrak directly. Another passenger called customer service over 50 times without getting through.

The incidents provoked both U.S. Senators from Virginia to send an open letter to Amtrak. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine didn’t hesitate to criticize the government-owned service. Here’s an excerpt:

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Transportation

Winter storm leaves Amtrak passengers stuck on trains for days

Several passengers stuck on trains since Monday arrived home Wednesday, some by rental car



In this image taken from video and provided by WSET-TV, ABC 13, the Amtrak Crescent train No. 20 traveling from New Orleans to New York on Jan. 4 remains in Lynchburg, Va., after inclement weather and power outages in Northern Virginia. (Madison Doner/AP)

By Justin George
January 5, 2022 at 6:39 p.m. EST

When word began to travel up the aisles that toilets on their long-stalled Amtrak train were stopped up, Malcolm Kenton and his aunt took their lone opportunity to disembark in Lynchburg, Va., still hundreds of miles from their homes.

They had spent about 30 stifling hours onboard, waiting out lengthy delays caused by a winter storm that created a logjam for passenger trains headed up the East Coast that began Monday and continued into Wednesday. Trains were stalled so long that passengers reported arguments breaking out in rail cars, parents begging for spare diapers and onboard cafes running out of food.

“We didn’t want to risk staying on a train with no food and no toilets,” said Kenton, 36, who lives near Union Station in D.C.

Amtrak delays were just one part of holiday travel upended over the past two weeks, thrown off course by a perfect storm of wintry weather, pilots and airline staff sickened by the omicron variant surge, and what travel officials say was the highest number of travelers who took to rail, roads and the skies since the start of the pandemic. A fast-moving storm on Monday dumped between five and 10 inches of snow in the Washington region, creating a bottleneck in Virginia, snarling traffic on Interstate 95 for more than 36 hours, toppling trees onto tracks and creating the largest regional snowstorm blackout in 11 years.

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By Justin George
Justin George is a reporter covering national transit and Metro, the D.C.-area public transportation system, for The Washington Post. He previously covered criminal justice for the Marshall Project and the Baltimore Sun. Twitter https://twitter.com/justingeorge