(The following article by Peter Dujardin was posted on the Hampton Roads Daily Press website on September 3.)
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Four Amtrak trains were canceled among Richmond, Williamsburg and Newport News on Tuesday and Wednesday because of power outages and flooding caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Gaston.
Service was expected to resume in full today, though delays in normal travel times are expected to continue.
Several travelers showed up at the Newport News station Thursday afternoon, expecting to get on the 4 p.m. train heading north. When they arrived, they found a note on the door, telling them that the train was canceled.
“What? I can’t believe it,” said Carol Lindsey, 45, of New Jersey, who was planning to go home Thursday after visiting a friend in Norfolk. Her friend, still waiting in a car, now would have to bring her back to the train station today.
Another woman, who would identify herself only as Alexis, was out $100. She spent $50 to take a cab from Norfolk, then had to dish out another $50 to get back to Norfolk. That’s not to mention the cost of the plane that she said she now would take to get to her destination of Greenwich, Conn.
“I’m not even going to bother with the train anymore,” she sighed. “I’m fed up.”
Trying to visit family, the 52-year-old was initially supposed to catch a train Tuesday morning. But she got a telephone call Monday night from an Amtrak official, telling her the trains were canceled Wednesday. She thought for sure that they’d be back up and running by Thursday.
Amtrak canceled its trains because power outages in Richmond led to dead train traffic signals and crossing gates, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. Train service couldn’t resume, he said, until power was restored to adequate levels and train-carrying bridges could be inspected for flood damage. One train was due to come in Thursday evening, and the first outgoing train was supposed to leave this morning. “There’s a lot of congestion when you resume after being shut down,” Magliari said. Where there are continuing power outages, people have to go in front of the trains to stop the auto traffic at various crossings, causing delays.
Amtrak reported that it tried to call passengers to inform them about the delays but that the company wasn’t able to reach everyone. Some people leave the numbers of the places they’re going, while some leave numbers of where they’re coming from. But reaching them is all about where they are on their journey.
“The system is not without its faults,” Magliari said. “We certainly made every effort to reach people. We’re weren’t able to reach everyone, and I’m sorry about that.”
He said refunds would be available for people whose trains were canceled and had to find another way to their destinations.
Coal traffic that uses the same tracks also was delayed by the storm. CSX Railway, which carries coal from West Virginia to the piers of Newport News, also saw its service delayed because of the storm. In one case, a train that was due to arrive Tuesday morning at Dominion Terminal Associates, a Newport News coal terminal, ended up arriving at 11 p.m. Wednesday, said Ted Janson, superintendent of operations at DTA.
But that didn’t hurt DTA, he said, because no vessels that carry the coal to sea were scheduled to leave in the interim.