Massive Amtrak Delays in the Northeast Spark Outrage, Humor
An Acela Express Train in Connecticut. (Photo: iStock)
It was a long day’s journey into night, when the train I was riding on, Acela Number 2122, got stuck for almost two hours Tuesday evening on a bridge over the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
According to the conductor, there was a signal outage caused by the massive storms that had ripped through the Northeast region, downing trees and power lines. During a busy commuting night, Amtrak had suspended its Northeast Corridor and Keystone services from Washington to Philadelphia and throughout Pennsylvania. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority also suspended its regional rail service.
The line in the Acela Café Car snaked through the train, and the food went fast — pizza sold out first, then hot dogs. Passengers who had taken the train when their flights were cancelled joked about the situation, and even the conductor tried to lighten the mood (“Ladies & gentlemen, if there are any musicians onboard, we’d appreciate a show!”). And despite the delays, all was hushed in the Quiet Car.
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The train arrived in New York City three hours late. Annoying, but I didn’t have it nearly as bad as passenger Jeff Garis, who was stuck on the Keystone 656 for over six hours — it should have been a one hour, 49 minute ride — with no air conditioning, electricity, or water. “You owe me,” he tweeted to Amtrak, which told his wife that they were passing out water to passengers. “Amtrak lied to my wife when she called them. Told her they had people handing out water,” he wrote on Twitter. “6 hrs no H20.”
Delays across the region left passengers stranded and frustrated. “Hey @Amtrak we’re still sitting here waiting for this train to pass us. You should be glad the elderly people near me aren’t on Twitter,” tweeted Tim Reeves, who later reported that the crew on his train had to be changed out at midnight.
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Jim Shellenberger, a passenger on Train Number 649 reported downed trees on the tracks in Pennsylvania — and a train that took action. “The train is now ramming through the tree,” he tweeted. “Kinda cool.”
Amtrak sent vague updates via Twitter to passengers aboard the trains (”Due to weather related conditions and backlog of trains, passengers traveling on Northeast Corridor should expect delays”).
And yet, some passengers managed to find humor in the situation. Jassiel Perez snapped a photo of people waiting in line for food on his train, which took eight hours to reach New York City from Washington D.C. His caption: “The Hunger Games have begun.”
“I carried a giant suitcase of lemons from one train to another for a fellow passenger. This is a metaphor I’m pretty sure,” tweeted Buzzfeed DC Bureau Chief John Stanton, who was forced to switch trains.
And Steven Perlberg, a Wall Street Journal reporter on delayed Acela 2126, summed it up perfectly on Twitter: “Beautiful moment on Amtrak. Everyone’s iPhone flash flood warnings went off at the same time. Oh how we laughed. At least we have each other.”
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