Amtrak apologises for stranding 110 passengers at Union Station (26/12)

[GatwickDepress]

Not the first time it's happened at DC either. Someone's going to have a meeting sans tea and biscuits.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/12/27/amtrak-stranded-passengers-dc-union-station

Amtrak apologized Friday for leaving passengers stranded at D.C.’s Union Station the night after Christmas, saying a “miscommunication” caused a train headed for New York to leave them behind.

The last train of the night from Roanoke to New York was set to leave Union Station at 10 p.m. on Thursday night. But a passenger, who shared his experience on Reddit, wrote that the doors to the train platform were never opened and no staff could be found to open it. The poster provided a copy of their ticket to The Washington Post and confirmed they had made the posts online but declined to speak on the record.

The train was initially delayed 12 minutes, the poster said, and then it disappeared from signs announcing departures. So he and other passengers assumed the delay had increased without an announcement. Instead, checking the Amtrak website, they saw the train marked as having already departed. The passenger said it took until about 11 p.m. for an employee to explain to them what had happened. In a video he took, the crowd is told that the train left, “possibly thinking that there was no one getting on.”

Amtrak ridership is at an all-time high, both nationally and at Union Station; almost half of the 33 million riders in the past fiscal year were on the Northeast Corridor between New York and D.C.

Amtrak spokeswoman Kimberly Woods confirmed in a statement that the train “departed Washington Union Station before all passengers were able to board.” She added, “Amtrak sincerely apologies for the miscommunication that resulted in customers missing their train. We provided customers service on the next train, food and beverages, hotel accommodations and full refunds.”
The Amtrak boarding process in D.C., where people wait in long lines to get to the tracks, has been a source of rider frustration for years. Amtrak has said they want to expand seating and recently added a temporary waiting area in Union Station.

The passenger said on Reddit that a customer service representative told him 110 people were affected, that he got a refund, credit for future trips and a ticket on an Acela train the next morning. Other expenses, he said he was told, could be filed with Amtrak’s corporate office.
It’s one of a few holiday snags for Amtrak’s Northeast service. On Sunday, downed overhead power wires led to service suspensions and delays. The next day, several more trains were canceled because of signal power issues. Holiday flights were treacherous too — there were delays at Reagan National Airport on Christmas Eve when a technical glitch grounded all American Airlines planes.

 

[yorksrob]

A refund, credit for three future trips and a ticket on the next train seems really generous (can't get our own shysters to cough up even basic delay repay over here).

 

[AlterEgo]

Stupidest boarding procedure in the western world. They refuse to let you wait on the platform!

 

[duesselmartin]

Stupidest boarding procedure in the western world. They refuse to let you wait on the platform!

Just like Eurostar then.

 

[superalbs]

Stupidest boarding procedure in the western world. They refuse to let you wait on the platform!

Spain?

 

[A S Leib]

Stupidest boarding procedure in the western world. They refuse to let you wait on the platform!

Skegness?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Just like Eurostar then.

Or Blackpool North, where I believe this exact situation has occurred.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Stupidest boarding procedure in the western world. They refuse to let you wait on the platform!

I've also had it at Paris Gare du Lyon, Napoli Centrale and Milano Centrale before so it's not just America.

 

[43096]

I've also had it at Paris Gare du Lyon, Napoli Centrale and Milano Centrale before so it's not just America.

Amtrak do, though, have a stupidly convoluted boarding and on-board management system. Takes a bit of getting used to, but worth it.

 

[GatwickDepress]

A refund, credit for three future trips and a ticket on the next train seems really generous (can't get our own shysters to cough up even basic delay repay over here).

Definitely not normal levels of compensation. Suspect it's because it was entirely their fault that so many people were affected and it hit the national news, rather than Amtrak being cuddly and kind.

The usual Amtrak compensation procedure is waiting on hold for two hours and transferring through multiple customer service reps, or using the website chatbot that sends you to a 404 page. Probably improved since I tried to claim compensation a few years ago.

Stupidest boarding procedure in the western world. They refuse to let you wait on the platform!

Quite often the gate attendant at DC only shows up minutes before departure, so you end up with a horde of people running for the train. Euston management would be proud.

 

[yorksrob]

Definitely not normal levels of compensation. Suspect it's because it was entirely their fault that so many people were affected and it hit the national news, rather than Amtrak being cuddly and kind.

The usual Amtrak compensation procedure is waiting on hold for two hours and transferring through multiple customer service reps, or using the website chatbot that sends you to a 404 page. Probably improved since I tried to claim compensation a few years ago.

Oh dear, sounds as bad as here in normal circumstances then !

 

[AlterEgo]

Spain?

Worse because there’s no chance of missing the train in Spain. Amtrak manages to be both overstaffed and feckless at this.

I've also had it at Paris Gare du Lyon, Napoli Centrale and Milano Centrale before so it's not just America.

Have you missed a train there because of it? This isn’t new for America and the boarding procedure is often by coach and extremely and unnecessarily finicky - assuming the staff even turn up. They do this at rural shacks too like Rutland. It’s infuriating and daft.

 

[Chriso]

I missed a train 5 mins before departure once when travelling Chicago to Milwaukee because the doors was locked and they said the train had already fully boarded .

I was furious as the next one was around 3 hours and I was only going for the day. It is infuriating and unnecessary

 

[rg177]

Washington Union is particularly unfriendly as I recall walking off an Acela, being greeted with a pair of wide open doors to the concourse and being absolutely screamed at by staff from inside to get out and follow the mildly convoluted route around the platforms instead. You'd think I'd gone for a wander on the tracks Fair enough there's a way to go perhaps, but no excuse for being so vile about it.

On-train staff from experience are usually more reasonable, but the stations in particular are a bizarre place to be if you're not used to it.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Worse because there’s no chance of missing the train in Spain. Amtrak manages to be both overstaffed and feckless at this.


Have you missed a train there because of it? This isn’t new for America and the boarding procedure is often by coach and extremely and unnecessarily finicky - assuming the staff even turn up. They do this at rural shacks too like Rutland. It’s infuriating and daft.

No but I thought they were equally stupid and infuriating when leaving it to 5 minutes before departure.

 

[stadler]

The big problem with both Amtrack in the USA and Viarail in Canada is that they seem to forget that they are a train company and think they are an airline. They operate their whole company like an airline. It is an awful operation. Every time i have used it they have been dreadful. I have experienced them making passengers wait until three minutes before departure and then opening the doors and having everyone rush onboard. One time they opened it three minutes before departure and then some rude staff member was shouting at people to hurry as the train was about to leave. I have also regularly experienced the stupid procedure of only opening one door and making the entire group of passengers board through one door only. One time there was over a hundred passengers and they still made us board through just one door. I fail to understand why they can not just operate like a normal railway and let passengers wait on the platform and board through all doors. It is such an unfriendly operation.

 

[Halish Railway]

Unstaffed stations aren’t much better. Ashland in Virginia has no departure screens, no overbridge or subway between platforms and it’s pot luck as to what platform is used. Worse still if you’re stuck on the wrong platform and a long train is passing through at the linespeed of 35mph…