Letter from Rail Passengers Association to members
October 13, 2022
'It Should Never Have Happened!'
Last Friday, October 7, dozens of passengers endured a nightmarish 10-hour trip on Amtrak's westbound Wolverine, stranded for many hours without heat, ventilation, lights, food, or working toilets. Exhausted, exasperated, and desperate, some of them decided to open the doors, hop off the train, and take their chances.
What happened last weekend to these passenger should never have happened in the first place. In February, Amtrak promised Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner that there would be new procedures for handling service disruptions that would include immediate manager and supervisor attention, better communications with passengers, and alternate accommodations or transportation.
Instead, some bewildered passengers wound up taking matters into their own hands. I talked with one of those passengers (it was her video that produced this image), and she told me that after many hours, she and her fellow passengers let themselves off the train.
"We detrained and had to cross three active tracks, a field, and hop a fence to get to the side of a highway where we were able to catch an Uber to take us the rest of the way to Chicago. We understand that this was a very risky thing to do, but in the moment we all felt it was safer than staying on the train without power, overflowing bathrooms, no food, and not knowing what would happen because no one was communicating to us."
On behalf of all Rail Passengers Association members and the train riding public at large, I'm asking the necessary questions to get to the bottom of it. This week, I've asked Amtrak to explain why there seemed to be nobody in charge of this emergency. I've asked them about buses. I've asked them about why the crews seemed to struggle with how to get the train moving again. I've asked why it seems the lessons learned from this winter's Roanoke train disruption have gone unheeded.
We will continue to advocate for more trains with better service and we will continue to talk about how Amtrak remains a vital and important part of our economy. But we're also advocating for passengers and their safety, not just within Amtrak but with congressional offices and Biden Administration officials. This simply cannot happen ever again.
- Jim Matthews
- President & CEO
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