Took the 6:15 PM Amtrak Cascades from Portland to Seattle last week supposed to arrive 9:15, we didn’t get in until 2:30 AM. About an hour into the trip we got stuck behind a disabled train that Amtrak already knew about. Instead of offloading passengers right away, they spent 4 hours trying to couple the trains, before finally moving 200+ people onto ours at midnight.
Our train was already nearly full, so people were standing or sitting anywhere they could. Only one working bathroom, no food or water offered, and the whole atmosphere was chaotic. Missing my show was bad enough, but being trapped on a delayed train for 8 hours with no communication or options was brutal.
My big questions: why not transfer passengers earlier, or let people off at closer stations to find their own way? This felt like a huge failure in planning and communication. Was anyone else stuck on that train, and did you get any kind of compensation?
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