Amtrak made passengers of a severely delayed train sleep in the cold, cold Great Hall
The last few days, Chicago has been pretty cold, and we had more than a bit of snowfall. Everybody has beent talking about cancelled flights, but me - I've been looking at Amtrak's train tracker to see just how badly this screwed up long-distance trains. And on Thursday, I saw that Lake Shore Limited (which travels between Chicago and New York/Boston), which was supposed to leave Wednesday evening at 9:30 PM, didn't leave until the first half of the next day. And was running horribly behind schedule.
Lake Shore Limited train (left) leaves Chicago Union Station (Chicago Tribune photo)
The next day, I saw the Chicago Tribune article about what happened. And it turned out that the delays weren't even the worst part.
Passengers on an Amtrak train bound for New York City and Boston spent the night at Union Station in Chicago after the train was delayed 14 hours because of the cold weather.
Some of the passengers complained that they had to sleep on the floor with "thin blankets" provided by Amtrak, and had to crowd around a single heater.
"They froze us last night," Kathleen Bluemke said in a tired voice as the train was finally about to depart around 11 a.m. Thursday. "We couldn’t sleep, it was so cold. The glass doors to the terminals kept getting jammed open. It was basically like being outside. I wasn’t even worried about myself. It was terrible for my children."
She said her 7-year-old daughter’s hands became swollen and chapped because of the cold.
To which the politest thing I can say is - are you freaking kidding me?
I've been a pretty enthusiastic supporter of the Amtrak. Just look at the Amtrak tag. But I'm not about the let the transit agency off the hook. Who the hell thought that letting passengers sleep in a freaking Great Hall of the freaking Chicago Union Station was a good idea? Great Hall is a nice piece of architecture, but its temperature issues are well-documented.
Give the passengers hotel vouchers. There was no reason at all why passengers should have to stay at the Union Station overnight.
According to the Tribune article, Lake Shore Limited left the station at 7:35 AM, only to turn back around to change crews. Which is another thing any seasoned Amtrak traveler would've seen coming. Federal law prohibits train crews from working without rest more than 12 hours in a row. Lake Shore Limited travels quite a bit longer than 12 hours. Changing crews in Chicago makes more sense that trying to figure out the issue somewhere in Ohio, or Pennsylvania.
Amtrak defended its handling of the situation.
Amtrak says it offered refunds to those who wanted them, and tried to make the rest as comfortable as it could in the station.
“We offered full refunds without penalty to those who left and chose other modes of transportation," said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. "We fed passengers overnight when the concessions were closed. We provided snacks, coffee and hot chocolate. We fed passengers again as we left Chicago this morning.
But the passengers who spoke to the Tribune said they didn't hear anything about the refunds - and that Amtrak didn't give them any updates.
Whatever actually happened... This was handled poorly. Especially considering that this isn't the first time Amtrak trains ran into problems during the cold Chicago winter. Far, far from the first time.
Lake Shore Limited train (left) leaves Chicago Union Station (Chicago Tribune photo)
The next day, I saw the Chicago Tribune article about what happened. And it turned out that the delays weren't even the worst part.
Passengers on an Amtrak train bound for New York City and Boston spent the night at Union Station in Chicago after the train was delayed 14 hours because of the cold weather.
Some of the passengers complained that they had to sleep on the floor with "thin blankets" provided by Amtrak, and had to crowd around a single heater.
"They froze us last night," Kathleen Bluemke said in a tired voice as the train was finally about to depart around 11 a.m. Thursday. "We couldn’t sleep, it was so cold. The glass doors to the terminals kept getting jammed open. It was basically like being outside. I wasn’t even worried about myself. It was terrible for my children."
She said her 7-year-old daughter’s hands became swollen and chapped because of the cold.
To which the politest thing I can say is - are you freaking kidding me?
I've been a pretty enthusiastic supporter of the Amtrak. Just look at the Amtrak tag. But I'm not about the let the transit agency off the hook. Who the hell thought that letting passengers sleep in a freaking Great Hall of the freaking Chicago Union Station was a good idea? Great Hall is a nice piece of architecture, but its temperature issues are well-documented.
Give the passengers hotel vouchers. There was no reason at all why passengers should have to stay at the Union Station overnight.
According to the Tribune article, Lake Shore Limited left the station at 7:35 AM, only to turn back around to change crews. Which is another thing any seasoned Amtrak traveler would've seen coming. Federal law prohibits train crews from working without rest more than 12 hours in a row. Lake Shore Limited travels quite a bit longer than 12 hours. Changing crews in Chicago makes more sense that trying to figure out the issue somewhere in Ohio, or Pennsylvania.
Amtrak defended its handling of the situation.
Amtrak says it offered refunds to those who wanted them, and tried to make the rest as comfortable as it could in the station.
“We offered full refunds without penalty to those who left and chose other modes of transportation," said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. "We fed passengers overnight when the concessions were closed. We provided snacks, coffee and hot chocolate. We fed passengers again as we left Chicago this morning.
But the passengers who spoke to the Tribune said they didn't hear anything about the refunds - and that Amtrak didn't give them any updates.
Whatever actually happened... This was handled poorly. Especially considering that this isn't the first time Amtrak trains ran into problems during the cold Chicago winter. Far, far from the first time.