TRANSPORTATION

Hundreds stranded for hours on Amtrak train in rural South Carolina

By Kelsey Ables and Luz Lazo
Updated January 11, 2023 at 12:25 p.m. EST | Published January 11, 2023 at 12:24 a.m. EST

An Amtrak train traveling from the D.C. area to Florida was stuck for hours in rural South Carolina with limited food supplies after its route was changed because of the derailment of a CSX freight train. ... The 17-hour trip turned into a 37-hour nightmare for passengers on the Auto Train 53.

The train left Lorton, Va., about 5:30 p.m. Monday and was to arrive in Sanford, Fla., about 10 a.m. Tuesday. More than 30 hours later, hundreds of passengers had not reached their final destination after the train came to a halt in a wooded area near Denmark, S.C. ... As of late Tuesday night, Amtrak said the train was on the move again. It arrived at Sanford at 6 a.m. Wednesday, Amtrak said, with a 20-hour delay.

Amtrak spokeswoman Christina Leeds said in an email that the Auto Train — a specialized train where passengers bring their cars with them — had been “impacted by significant delays due to a CSX freight derailment in South Carolina” and was detoured off its normal route so it could continue moving south.

The incident is the latest extreme delay on the train service. In October, an Amtrak trip from Detroit to Chicago that was supposed to take about five hours took 19 hours, leaving passengers stuck without electricity, water or food, ABC7 Chicago reported. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 1 in 5 Amtrak trains were late in 2021. {Sic. They mean the BTS, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. I'll write them.}

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By Kelsey Ables
Kelsey Ables is a reporter at The Washington Post's Seoul hub, where she covers breaking news in the United States and across the world. She was previously on the Features desk, where she wrote about art, architecture and pop culture. Twitter https://twitter.com/ables_kelsey

By Luz Lazo
Luz Lazo is a transportation reporter at The Washington Post covering passenger and freight transportation, buses, taxis and ride-sharing services. She also writes about traffic, road infrastructure and air travel in the Washington region and beyond. She joined The Post in 2011. Twitter https://twitter.com/luzcita

Freight derailment sidelines Auto Train, disrupts Silver Meteor

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The train status feature on Amtrak’s website shows the train finally arrived in Sanford at 6:03 a.m. today (Wednesday, Jan. 11), some 20 hours, 4 minutes late. Monday’s northbound Auto Train arrived in Lorton at 6:53 p.m. on Tuesday, almost 9 hours late.

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