Off the Rails Part 2
“Your crew has expired”
Our saga continues. As I mentioned in the last post, Nick and I are assigned to our own car. Everyone else on the train is in the car in front of us. We finally pull out of Denver nearly 24 hours late but we are hopeful. All the problems that delayed our train getting to Denver should not be issues as we travel across the prairies and farmlands of the central US. We learned from some of the passengers that have been on the train since its departure from California, what the various issues were getting to Denver. The train was initially 4 hours late leaving California due to some undefined “late arrival of necessary equipment”. That seems to be Amtrak code for sit down, shut up and we’ll leave when we feel like leaving. Then the train got behind a snowplow in the Sierra Nevadas due to a snowstorm. In Utah, they ran into a landslide that covered the tracks with giant boulders that had to be removed with a crane. And finally, they were delayed due to freight train operations. Amtrak leases the rails from commercial freight train operators and the freight trains have preference for use of the track.
Well, that’s all behind us and it should be smooth sailing to Chicago. I get myself a cocktail and settle in. About an hour outside of Denver, we feel the train starting to slow down. Once we are stopped, the conductor announces that we have to stop because the crew has run out of hours. There is a federal law that the train crew cannot work more than 12 hours straight for safety reasons. I’m OK with that. What was odd was why did we leave Denver if they could only work 1 more hour? We are stopped in the middle of nowhere on the plains of eastern Colorado. Many of the passengers have gathered in the observation car and we are all discussing this strange set of circumstances. The train crew comes in after changing out of their uniforms and they are hanging out with us. Of course the topic turns to the lengthly delays and we are all questioning why we didn’t just stay in Denver and wait for the new crew. This crew is agreeing with us and says they have been telling the office all day that this was going to be an issue and we should just stay in Denver. They say it should only take about an hour for the new crew to arrive which makes sense if they are coming from Denver. To make up for us having to wait, they were gracious enough to give us a small bowl of stew for free. Gee, thanks Amtrak, all is forgiven.
While we are waiting, I go down to the cafe to get another cocktail. While I’m down there, the attendant calls for a conductor to come down. When he arrives, she tells him that there is sewage leaking in the toilet near the cafe and that a valve needs turned to shut it off. He says he is out of hours and he can’t do any work. Now I’m pissed. I can understand not driving a train after you run out of hours but to allow raw sewage to leak near the cafe area is unforgivable. My whole opinion of the crew and Amtrak changed at that point.
So, we wait three hours for the new crew to arrive. They come bouncing down a dirt road in a minivan in the pitch black. The crews change out and we get on our way. It’s getting late now so I try to get some sleep. After about three hours, I wake up and the train is not moving and we are not at a station so I look at my phone to see if there are any messages from Amtrak and I see this….
Well this seems like a real problem so I walk toward the front of the train and I find a passenger who isn’t sleeping. I ask him if he knows what is going on. He tells me that this new crew has also run out of hours! We’ve only gone a little more than 3 hours. I ask how that is possible since the drive from Denver should only be about an hour. He says that the new crew came from Lincoln Nebraska, an 8 hour drive away. I was stunned. The previous crew knew that yet let us believe that they were coming from Denver. The replacement crew had been on the road for hours before we even left Denver and Amtrak knew that could only drive the train for a few hours yet never said a word to the passengers.
We finally get underway again and before too long, we get this announcement…
I’m new to train travel but it seems to me that ordering out for pizza is a little strange. Also, why didn’t they put more food on board when we were in Denver? This is getting really weird. Our crew has apparently died and we’ve run out of food and are ordering pizza delivery.
After all of this, we’ve been given no direction on what will happen if and when we finally get to Chicago since everyone has missed a connection. Nick and I start trying to call Amtrak customer service to arrange alternative connections. Of course, Amtrak makes it impossible to actually talk to someone. Our first attempts went like this….
We are undaunted, so we keep trying. After a while, Amtrak realizes that we aren’t easily dissuaded so they up their game with employee #9999997 (who still isn’t an actual person)….
We finally give up and agree to deal with it when we get to Chicago. Our travails aren’t done yet though. After a while the train comes to a stop and they announce that we have mechanical issues and don’t know when we will move again. Thankfully, it only takes about an hour and we start moving. About 45 minutes later, we stop again, this time for a freight train to pass. We wait about 20 minutes and the freight train passes but we don’t start moving. After another 30 minutes, they tell us that we have another mechanical issue. Again fortunately, they are able to get us going in about 30 minutes.
After all of this, we finally arrive in Chicago around 10 pm, 30 hours late and 60 hours since we left our hotel in Winter Park. They have one customer service person there who is getting everyone hotel rooms. It takes about an hour to get everyone processed and then they take us on a shuttle bus to a local hotel. In the morning, Nick returns to Union Station to board another Amtrak train to Pittsburgh and then a bus to State College. I take an Uber to O’hare and catch a plane to Pensacola. Our insane train trip is finally done.
One thing left is to try to get some reimbursment for our expenses. I manage to get thru to a real person and explain the situation and everything that happened. Apparently, it was good enough for us to qualify for the Amtrak Tournament of Champions as they gave us travel vouchers for another train trip if we choose to accept the challenge. Time will tell if we feel up to another Amtrak adventure.