(The following report by Demond Fernandez appeared on the WOAI website on August 30.)
SAN ANTONIO — Tired and frustrated, people from all across the country were upset because they say Amtrak stranded them in San Antonio. A problem with the train kept the locomotive here in town.
They were stuck on a train here for nearly 20 hours. Nearly 100 frustrated amtrak passengers were finally back on the tracks Thursday afternoon.
News 4 WOAI’s Demond Fernandez spoke to those passengers about the delay.
“We’ve been over here for 12 hours already, going on 16 hours, now we got to wait,” said one passenger that waited while Amtrak tried to fix the problems.
“If you’re just sitting in one spot for 16 hours, that’s hard on anybody,” added Floyd, another passenger.
The travelers were stuck with no place to go.
“They broke the train apart. There is no dining car on the train. The toilets are overflowing,” said Anthony Verlec, on his way to Los Angeles.
“I’m missing a day of my reunion because I’m getting there late and I’m real unhappy about it,” said Ella Whitmore. She was on her way to Arizona.
Many of the riders said Amtrak was not giving any clear answers on when they would get back on track.
According to an Amtrak spokesman, the delay all started in Shrivner, Louisiana. That’s where the city had to evacuate because of a natural gas leak.
The spokesman says that leak set the train schedule back 12 hours. To top that, a passenger died of natural causes on a connector heading to pick up these people.
“The thing is there are no contingency plans. Only thing they tell us to do is wait,” said Verlec.
The people we talked to were heading to cities all over the country. Amtrak’s spokesman said the company regrets the delay.
He says they tried accommodating the passengers by offering them two complimentary meals.