We were once on an Amtrak train that broke down (or something?), and they pulled another train up on a track next to us and had us walk between them on a little plank-like thing to board it. Which was kind of weird, but the delay wasn't that long, maybe an hour. Didn't expect, or receive, any kind of compensation or communication from them about it.

A few years ago I was on the last train out of NY to DC. At some out of the way area in NJ we hit a herd of deer which took out the electrical on the train. Dead stop for hours without lights or AC. We eventually had a train pull along side and got off our train and onto the other train in the middle of the night.

It was a very unsafe situation between the lack of electricity then boarding another train in the dark in the middle of nowhere.

Crickets from Amtrak.

To me “public transit” means “no fees at the point of entry.”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not public transit

Really? Fascinating.

Who owns AmTrak?

It is fascinating. Public transit is like light rail or commuter trains. Amtrak takes passengers from city to city. Different.

So again, who owns it?

"Amtrak is a state-owned enterprise. This means that Amtrak is a for-profit company, but that the federal government owns all its preferred stock."

So to reiterate: it’s a transit provider, for use by the public, and is owned by the federal government.

But it’s not public transit.


Ok

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not public transit

Really? Fascinating.

Who owns AmTrak?

It is fascinating. Public transit is like light rail or commuter trains. Amtrak takes passengers from city to city. Different.

So again, who owns it?

"Amtrak is a state-owned enterprise. This means that Amtrak is a for-profit company, but that the federal government owns all its preferred stock."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not public transit

Really? Fascinating.

Who owns AmTrak?

It is fascinating. Public transit is like light rail or commuter trains. Amtrak takes passengers from city to city. Different.

So again, who owns it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

530 am? Sorry OP. That sounds awful. I would hope they at least refund your ticket. Williamsburg to Richmond is pretty close. I’m surprised they didnt get some buses and drive at least the old passengers and the kids to their destination.

I think the final destination was probably DC (at least for OP...the final destination for that train line is Boston) but just got stranded on tracks somewhere between Williamsburg and Richmond

Anonymous wrote: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.

530 am? Sorry OP. That sounds awful. I would hope they at least refund your ticket. Williamsburg to Richmond is pretty close. I’m surprised they didnt get some buses and drive at least the old passengers and the kids to their destination.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Amtrak owns the rails from DC to NYC, but almost all the rest is owned by freight companies so Amtrak doesnt' get priority.

Well, if OP was stranded outside Richmond, yeah, that's entirely all freight tracks down there. Though this sounds less like a freight line screwing over Amtrak and more like they literally had to clean up a derailed freight car/fix the tracks before OP's passenger train could go.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not public transit

Really? Fascinating.

Who owns AmTrak?

It is fascinating. Public transit is like light rail or commuter trains. Amtrak takes passengers from city to city. Different.

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Amtrak owns the rails from DC to NYC, but almost all the rest is owned by freight companies so Amtrak doesnt' get priority.

Anonymous wrote:It’s not public transit

Really? Fascinating.

Who owns AmTrak?

Contact your congressional rep/senators! Passenger trains get precedence in this country but the freight lines screw Amtrak over all of the time. And no one really does anything about it.

Anonymous wrote:

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

This guy between dc and ny.

Maybe we were on the same trip! My train originated in NY. Did they move you to a Marc train too? I can’t recall exactly but I think their may have sheen a train / engine switch before we got to Maryland too. Amazingly no comp or acknowledgement. It was like business as usual for Amtrak I guess.

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.

In my case, the train caught fire in New Jersey(?), and at some point near Maryland we were moved to a MARC train. It was like riding Metro for the rest of the trip. Plenty of no i/little ssue trips, but that one was a disaster.