Passengers on an overnight Amtrak ride had a to go through quite the ordeal as they were stranded on the disabled train for 14 hours with no air conditioning, no working toilets and an absence of train workers to comfort them or answer their questions.
More than 250 passengers were stranded on Train 91 from New York City to Miami. The train came to an unexpected stop two miles north of Richmond at around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday due to an axle problem. The train didn't start moving again until 7 a.m. on Monday, the Daily Mail reports.
Meshelle Reynolds and her 12-year-old daughter Rayshell were passengers who didn't arrive in Raleigh until 19 hours after they left Washington D.C.
"I'm home. I smell like a toilet, but otherwise I'm OK," Reynolds said according to the Daily Mail. She said that Amtrak workers explained the problem and apologized but they only spoke to passengers once at 10 p.m. and they didn't get any updates on why it was taking so long to get the train moving.
"My biggest complaint was after 10 o'clock they vanished. They vanished while we were in the middle of nowhere," Reynolds said.
She said that Richmond police came to check on the passengers but they wouldn't let anyone leave. The police had to walk to reach the train. The police came to check on them after angry passengers contacted media outlets.
Reynolds noted that most of the passengers in her car were children and many were asleep but many passengers weren't happy about the toilets not working when the power went out.
"It was horrible," she said. "Unfortunately we had the last seat, right next to the bathroom. If you're on a train with a bunch of kids, no bathroom is not an option."
The air conditioning was also down for a while but when it started blowing again, Reynolds said it was too cold.
Train worker provided passengers with snacks and water on Sunday night and Monday morning but Reynolds said she had to pay for a meal that she wouldn't have had to buy if she arrived in Raleigh on time. She is seeking a refund for the meal and the trip.
An Amtrak spokesman said the company would investigate Reynold's claims. "I can say with certainty at no point did the train loose electrical power," Clifford Cole told the Daily Mail. He said there may have been a power disruption as the train switched to reserve power.
"All we can do is apologize," Cole said. "We did the best we could under the circumstances. Our trains are not usually delayed for this amount of time."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
