Passengers recount hours-late Amtrak trip to Chicago without power aboard: ‘I ‘ve been a train that hit a car, a cow…But this is the worst’

Detroit area business analyst Sheri Laufer is no stranger to the Amtrak’s Wolverine line train between Troy and Chicago. She has taken the six-hour train ride to Chicago to see her mother and boyfriend hundreds of times over more than 20 years and has experienced all sorts of delays and travel problems.

Luckily, the trip is usually a breeze when she brings a book and maybe kills time talking to her boyfriend by phone.

But her latest trip aboard Wolverine train 351 on Friday turned into an 18-hour nightmare that began when the commuter train lost all electrical power about an hour into its trip.

What followed was hours of mechanical problems, false starts and unscheduled stops that tested the patience of many passengers, who were without food, lights, heat or working toilets. Some passengers even fled the train during times it stalled, willing to find their own way forward.

“I have not (had a trip this bad),” Laufer told a Tribune reporter by phone on Saturday hours after her late arrival. “I had the train (I was riding in) hit a car. The train hit a cow. I’ve had all kinds of weird things happen to me on this train, but this is the worst.”

The Friday incident was the latest in a string of mechanical and operating problems that have dogged the nation’s largest commuter railway, that have included a fatal derailment, systemwide delays and staffing problems.

Passengers who spoke to the Tribune recounted a trip plagued with mechanical problems and other delays that slowed or outright stopped travel for long stretches of time.

After losing power about 19 miles west of Ann Arbor, according to Amtrak, the stalled train waited for a Wolverine train that arrived two hours later and coupled together, with the electrically powered train pushing the stalled one.

Then more problems arose. A passenger reported a medical emergency and the train stopped again before resuming with the passenger remaining onboard. After starting again, the train had brake issues that slowed the train and emitted a bad smell, passengers said. After that, a power issue related to one of the trains’ batteries caused another stop.

The final straw for dozens of passengers came Friday night during a final unscheduled stop in East Chicago, Indiana within view of the Ameristar Casino. Passengers said the train stopped to swap train staff onboard who has reached their 12-hour work limit. Federal railway safety laws prohibit the number of work hours for certain classes of rail workers.

“Now it’s 9ish at night. The train is dark. It’s cold. There’s no food. They’re handing out glow sticks. It smelled bad. You couldn’t go to the bathroom,” recalled Michael Bambery, a Plymouth, Mich. psychologist who boarded the train with his wife and two children at Ann Arbor for what was supposed to be a fun, carefree weekend.

In an act of near desperation, Bambery posted a message to one of Amtrak’s Twitter accounts hoping, hoping for updates, but didn’t immediately heard back. “I never really tweet, but I was just trying to communicate with them … so I started tweeting ‘Hey guys — we’re struggling here,” he laughed.

Faced with uncertainty mounting as the train waited for new staff members to finish the already overwhelming trip, Bambery said he’d reached his limit. “A lot of people’s phones were dead and there’s really no communication from Amtrak anymore. And that’s when I decided that my family and I needed to get off that train,” he said.

Bambery, who traveled to Chicago so that his wife and 14-year-old daughter could attend Saturday’s Harry Styles concert at the United Center while he and his son attended the Northwestern football game against Wisconsin, said he was among 30 to 50 passengers who opened the doors and exited the train in the center of a rail yard and took their chances getting a ride-share along the Indiana State Road 912 expressway.

Bambery said his family got lucky and found an Uber driver who stopped to take his family to their hotel, finally arriving around 11 p.m.

Laufer, 57, who remained aboard the train from its 5:30 a.m. local time departure, said she watched as passengers like the Bamberys left the train in the desolate setting and uncomfortable with the thought of wandering around in an unfamiliar place. “The choice was I could either try to walk off this train where I didn’t know anybody, where I could potentially hurt myself even more,” she said. ” Or I sit here and purposely think Amtrak isn’t going to let something awful happen to us.”

An Amtrak spokesman said the railway agencies suggests that passengers on stranded trains remain onboard and said he would look into whether the agency planned to issue refunds.

Laufer said she finally arrived in Chicago until after midnight Friday, but was at least able to ride the last leg home in a train car with power.

Chicago’s Union Station is the busiest station in the Midwest and fourth busiest in Amtrak’s network, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Amtrak, which services 48 states, has struggled with equipment and operating issues, combined and canceled train lines, service delays and staffing shortages that have led to similar incidents.

In August, a lightning strike knocked out Amtrak’s signal system in Maryland, leaving a Northeast Regional Amtrak stranded for several hours in Aberdeen, Maryland, according to published reports. Similarly, the train waited for train staff to relieve onboard workers who hit their half-day limits.

A recent Washington Post article noted that Amtrak trips were also being hampered by “heat-related speed restrictions and worsening problems on freight rail lines, which often share tracks with Amtrak trains.”

Bamberry, who isn’t a daily Amtrak user, didn’t fault the train’s staff, saying the last unplanned stop frayed some passenger’s emotions, aided by the lack of communication from Amtrak.

“You almost give them the benefit of the doubt. They tried their best. At that point, it really felt like you were on your own.”

In hindsight, Laufer said she hoped for a better operational plan for halted trips like these. “I wish that when the train broke (down) … at that point they should have gotten us a bus, or some other arrangement,” she said.

wlee@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @Midnoircowboy