Dec 23, 2008 5:51 pm US/Central
Amtrak Troubles: Passengers Stranded For 23 Hours
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Several Amtrak trains were delayed or cancelled due to frozen equipment.
CBS
Weather created an ordeal for hundreds, if not thousands of Amtrak passengers at Union Station. Some passengers got stuck waiting nearly a day for their train to leave.
CBS 2's Jim Williams reports that some passengers were fortunate. Their Amtrak train was able to leave union station for Milwaukee Tuesday afternoon.
Others were delayed for hours. The worst case – more than 600 passengers trying to get to the Pacific Northwest were stuck on the train and in cold waiting rooms for nearly a day. Some said they had little food and water.
"We kept getting updated notifications that the toilets were frozen, the switching lines were frozen," a passenger said. "No one really knew what was going on."
The train finally left Tuesday afternoon – 23 hours late – but would only go as far as St. Paul, Minnesota.
An Amtrak spokesperson said food was provided.
"If any of our passengers have any issues about how they were treated, if they were treated especially well or not so, we want to hear from every one of those 600-some passengers," said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. "We want to know what worked and we want to know what didn't work."
Amtrak blamed weather – snow and bitter cold across the country – that froze equipment and created rail problems.
Tuesday night, other passengers waited to leave Chicago, their holiday reunions delayed.
"My husband called probably about 45 minutes ago and we heard the train would leave at 7, but, you know, rumors flying, we have no idea what's going on," a passenger said.
The best advice if you are leaving today or tomorrow: call ahead to see where the trains stand or visit Amtrak's website by
clicking here.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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