Hundreds stranded for hours on Amtrak train in rural South Carolina
The incident is the latest extreme delay on the train service.
An Amtrak train traveling from the D.C. area to Florida was stuck for hours in rural South Carolina with limited food supplies after its route was diverted because of the derailment of a CSX freight train.
The train departed Lorton, Va., about 5:30 p.m. Monday and was scheduled to arrive in Sanford, Fla., about 10 a.m. Tuesday. More than 30 hours later, hundreds of passengers had still not reached their final destination after the train came to a halt in a wooded area near Denmark, S.C.
As of late Tuesday night, Amtrak said the train was on the move again and is scheduled to arrive at Sanford early Wednesday.
Amtrak spokesperson Christina Leeds said in an email that the Auto Train – a specialized train where passengers bring their cars with them – had been “impacted by significant delays due to a CSX freight derailment in South Carolina” and was detoured off its normal route so it could continue moving south.
The incident is the latest extreme delay on the train service. In October, an Amtrak trip from Detroit to Chicago that was supposed to take about 5 hours took 19 hours, leaving passengers stuck without electricity, water or food, ABC7 Chicago reported. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 1 in 5 Amtrak trains were late in 2021.
Leeds wrote that during Tuesday’s delay, Amtrak had been “providing regular updates to customers, along with meals, snack packs and beverages.” She added that onboard employees were working with pet owners to provide bathroom breaks for animals.
She did not respond to a question about whether customers would be refunded for the delay.
A statement from CSX that was given to ABC 7 News in Washington said the derailment of the freight train, which caused the delay, happened when it came in contact with an unoccupied vehicle on the tracks in Lake City, S.C., with 25 rail cars and two locomotives affected.
The news station also reported that the Amtrak passenger train was held up waiting for a new crew to arrive because the original crew had timed out. This was complicated by the fact that only some crews with specialized training can operate the Auto Train.
Amtrak’s Auto Train debuted in 1983. The concept of taking your automobile on vacation without having to drive it was so popular that the company received over 400 requests for reservations before it had even decided to start the service. In 2021, close to 200,000 passenger trips road the service, which is marketed today as “a stress-free journey by rail, skipping the traffic congestion on I-95.”
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