Amtrak Train Stranded Last Night

[Anonymous]

Was anyone else on the Amtrak train that was stranded for seven hours between Williamsburg and Richmond last night? I was supposed to get back to DC at 8:55pm and didn't get in until 5:30. Has anyone even heard from Amtrak about this? I haven't received so much as a "sorry for your inconvenience" email from Customer Service.

[Anonymous]

That’s the price of public transit conveyed by a govt funded monopoly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s the price of public transit conveyed by a govt funded monopoly.

Do you know anything about the rail system in this country or do you just spout stupid things for fun?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s the price of public transit conveyed by a govt funded monopoly.

Op here and Idek what this means, just curious if anyone else was as miserable/bored as I was last night and if anyone has been made aware of Amtrak's plans to reimburse passengers. We literally did not move for seven hours.

[Anonymous]

I had a similar situation experience many years ago. No acknowledgement or compensation.

[Anonymous]

Social media is your friend, OP! You should have started on the train, demanding comps on Amtrak's pages.

[Anonymous]

I used to commute by Amtrak every day. I had probably a dozen very major delays (5+ hours) and had to deboard a train to another train 3 times (this takes an insanely long time because everyone has to cross over one bridge to another train). I never got any acknowledgment of this, any time it happened. If you really become a nuisance they might refund your ticket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Social media is your friend, OP! You should have started on the train, demanding comps on Amtrak's pages.

Ha, we were stopped in rural VA so there was NO service on the train. Plus, I honestly kind of assumed they'd send us an email by the time we got to DC saying so sorry for your night from hell, here's a free drink on your next trip. I don't expect a full refund but some acknowledgment would be appropriate, I think

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to commute by Amtrak every day. I had probably a dozen very major delays (5+ hours) and had to deboard a train to another train 3 times (this takes an insanely long time because everyone has to cross over one bridge to another train). I never got any acknowledgment of this, any time it happened. If you really become a nuisance they might refund your ticket.

interesting that you noted they had you deboard a train to another train. Last night Amtrak's best attempt at getting things moving again was to reverse the train back to Williamsburg (keep in mind we were already almost 20mi from the Richmond station) and put us all on busses. Then this wasn't mentioned again for another two hours at which point the conductor was like "Oh yeah we didn't have enough busses, so we're just gonna wait for them to fix the freight train."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a similar situation experience many years ago. No acknowledgement or compensation.

This guy between dc and ny.

[Anonymous]

It's Amtrak. They are not known for timeliness or customer service. They know they can get away with it. What are you going to do, never ever take a train again? Stowaway on freight trains? Walk?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s the price of public transit conveyed by a govt funded monopoly.

Yes because no one has ever been delayed or stranded when they’ve take privately operated airlines…

[Anonymous]

It’s not public transit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a similar situation experience many years ago. No acknowledgement or compensation.

Same

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's Amtrak. They are not known for timeliness or customer service. They know they can get away with it. What are you going to do, never ever take a train again? Stowaway on freight trains? Walk?

If you read the later post it sounds like a freight train broke down on the line. Amtrak has no control over the freight trains (indeed the freight companies screw Amtrak all the time) so what do you expect Amtrak to do?