Amtrak passengers were trapped for 6 hours without air conditioning or working toilets after their train got stuck in Queens

pulse

November 26, 2018 7:34 PM

The trip usually lasts about four hours, but it was six hours, 44 minutes late on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

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Amtrak

Amtrak's high-speed service, the Acela Express, wasn't so express for passengers stuck between New York and Boston on Sunday during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

Train 2230 operated on schedule to New York City from Washington, DC, departing New York's Penn Station for the northerly half of its journey on time at 9:40 a.m. But shortly after the train crossed under the East River from Manhattan into Queens, damage to an overhead power line forced a delay of more than six hours that led to the closing of bathrooms and the loss of air conditioning aboard the sweltering train.

Some passengers, waiting hours for maintenance crews to restore service, used Twitter to air their frustrations.

"We are now into our 6th hour on the train," one passenger said. "Bathrooms have become filled to the brim due to lack of power to flush. Doors are closed which means in theory we should be leaving soon."

While toilets filled and temperatures rose, another passenger described smoke from overheated brakes pouring into the car.

"We were TRAPPED on the train for FIVE HOURS with ZERO functioning bathrooms," another said. "This is completely unacceptable."

The train and its 299 passengers finally arrived in Boston at 8:19 p.m. — six hours, 44 minutes after its scheduled arrival time of 1:35 p.m. An Amtrak representative told Business Insider that there were no injuries and that "customers were accommodated with food and non-alcoholic beverages."

This wasn't Amtrak's only holiday-weekend equipment failure and delay.

On Wednesday night, two cars on Train 68 from Albany to New York separated while underway in what Amtrak called a "rare incident."

Services into and out of New York are among Amtrak's few profitable routes. Last week, the government-owned company reported record revenue and earnings, despite falling ridership numbers. While the busy Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, DC, declined by about 0.1%, long-distance routes have seen ridership fall nearly 4% amid delays and infrastructure issues.

"We are having conversations with customers and offering appropriate compensation," Amtrak said of Sunday's Acela delay.

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