Amtrak What Happens When Disaster Strikes

hey guys welcome back to the channel today we are talking about what happens when disaster strikes on Amtrak [Music] okay so one of the things that many of you ask us about all the time in the comments on YouTube is oh you know have you had any mishaps have you had any problems on Amtrak any delays anything like that and we decided we'd kind of narrow it down to the top six incidents let's call them that have happened to us on Amtrak and I'm gonna let you kick this off Rob yeah we have had several incidents happen and they've all kind of worked themselves out in different ways so we're going to show you what happened give you our take on why it happened and how Amtrak resolved it let's Jump Right In with the first one this was the Texas Eagle we were traveling from Chicago West in a bedroom on the Texas eagle and we ran into a tornado and there was a tornado warning on the tracks and it got a little hairy for a few minutes right it did it was weird because it started just kind of raining shortly after we left Chicago and then all of a sudden everybody's emergency sound went off on their cell phone you could hear it like Echo throughout of all the sleeper cars all the people around us and then they came the train stopped all of a sudden and it was just kind of um just kind of A unsettling situation really for lack of another term it escalated pretty quickly so let's take a look look at what that was like I don't have a specific time at this point we'll keep you updated and informed if we have any additional information projectors will be walking about the train if you have any questions please feel free okay so we are stopped here just before our next station at Pontiac because we got a tornado warning ahead of us so we're they're stopping here to keep us safe so we're just at least we have a cool view here I'm looking out but uh we're gonna make the best of it here as we just kind of wait this one out we don't know how long it's going to be so we'll see what happens yeah but I'm not sure being perched above the river is the best place to be for the tornado warning but we'll see I don't think it's going to be too bad you can kind of see oh everybody's cell phones are going off for the tornado warning you can kind of see uh the little bridge that we're sitting on 20 minutes [Music] is closed my last person in line is holding the last person in line kind thank you Cafe cars you heard us closed so we're waiting for dinner which is going to be at uh five o'clock for us so should be not too much longer and we'll be on the move there are huge trees now floating down the river and also we just saw the room attendant walk by through by through the window and he was wearing like an orange life jacket type thing so I don't know if he's going out to check the situation but he was planning on getting wet in just a few minutes we ask that you please be on the platform listen for the all they said you can get off and take a smoke and some fresh air you want to walk to the center of the all right as you can see it is coming down pretty good out here uh I don't see a tornado yet but it's pretty wet they let us off here in Pontiac Illinois for a quick smoke break and fresh air and uh yeah it's really starting to rain so I'm gonna go back in before I get too wet okay the wind has picked up substantially out there and uh I came back inside because it was pretty wet and windy but we are safer and that's one of the things that is great about Amtrak is that they always have your safety in mind and they've got people looking ahead to see where the real bad weather is and so they can stop before you get there and that is awesome because when you're driving in a car and you're driving through this you don't really know where you're going you can't tell what's coming up and you drive right into something terrible so uh that was kind of fun to get out and play around in the rain but now I'm just gonna dry off for dinner okay we've waited out the tornado and we are back on the move again all right so as you saw we obviously made the best of it especially with Rob Cantore reporting live from the platform but that one was resolved pretty easily um it just set us back a little bit on our timetable but we were good with that we didn't really want them driving us through a tornado a possible tornado so that one worked out fine it didn't really cost us anything and it didn't really set us back much time wise honestly yeah that one was resolved but the next one was not really resolved so easily and it was a little bit more of a bummer for us uh it was actually on that same trip and that same weather system dumped tons of rain all over Missouri and we were supposed to be going from St Louis to Kansas City on the Missouri River Runner which was going to be our first time on that train and there were actually several people that were on there that were excited it was going to be their first time on the train and we got to the station and they said the train is canceled because there's too much water on the tracks and that they were going to put us on a bus so that was actually our first bus experience with Amtrak but we'll we'll explain it here in a second to you but it was definitely a different experience than what we were expecting and we didn't find out like you said that it was canceled until we got to the station that morning so they missed they must have really got a ton of rain that night and then made a last minute call so let's show you what that looked like we are headed on to Kansas City now but we got to the train station the Gateway station and they said there was so much water on the tracks to Kansas City that the train can't go we were supposed to be on the Missouri River Runner but they have arranged a bus for us to get there so a little change of plans we are going to be riding a bus to KC we'll see how that is it's a charter bus not a Greyhound bus or a through bus so I don't know how it's kind of different but we're going to hop on board see what that's like and uh incident all right so we paid 58 for our tickets which were actually business class seats and of course it's not gonna be business class seats on the bus on this coach bus so they did give us a refund of forty four dollars so that's kind of nice that they gave us that and still gave us access to the first class Lounge okay first stop Kirkwood somehow we made it here before the bus in front of us so there's some confusion as to who's going to get on and off because the other buses apparently not here yet foreign after a quick stop in Kirkwood and the cool thing was I think we just saw some Route 66 signs so I think we might have been on that for a minute so back on the highway to KC should be there in about three hours [Music] about an hour from Kansas City and we stopped at a rest area here uh for a 20 minute break so everyone is getting off to food vending machines use the facilities take a little walk so not bad so far hour to go it should be in Kansas City shortly the worst part about this whole situation is that there was really no uh planning for food so we don't have a really anything for dinner with us it's been about a five and a half hour ride and there's nothing available on the bus so tonight it looks like it was going to be ribs bits for dinner and we do have a Coke and we had a couple of boxes of uh pop charts so kind of an Eclectic dinner but it'll make do for tonight I think the worst part about that one was just the lack of food and the lack of preparation we were not prepared for that that was our mistake uh we didn't you know we didn't bring enough to eat and didn't have like a backup plan so they did resolve it by refunding some of our money we got you know the business class ticket was refunded but we didn't really enjoy the bus ride I know you really don't like that at all well my problem is I did I do get sickness and in the bus it really a little bit challenging for me to it would thankfully we were able to board early um like one of we were actually I think one of the first ones that was able to board and we could sit right behind the driver and that was a little helpful for me for my motion sickness but I wasn't prepared for it and like I said we didn't really have snacks those those food for like a meal we had those snacks with us from our hotel stay in St Louis so we were lucky we had that left over yeah our next uh disaster was a breakdown of the California Zephyr and this was a really fascinating trip because we were pulling one of the brand new engines it was being delivered so it was actually on the train backwards in Reverse but our actual engine broke down and from there it was just one of the two yeah and then two of the two it was it was really quite a scene we ended up having to get a BNSF engine borrow one and then it ended up pulling us but it couldn't go at the same rate that the Amtrak one does and it was pulling a lot of extra engines because it was broken down engine there was an engine being delivered so there was four engines on the front of the train and it just took forever to get where we were going but uh you know we made the best of it and this is where we first got our first look at the Amtrak special menu that you get when you break down and you're on the train way too long they do have extra fluid on board this was our first look at that menu so let's see how that went all right we are stopped here in Omaha still and as you can see behind me there is some engine work going on and interestingly uh we've been you know want to end of this down but we have been being towed by a BNSF engine and ironically we are also Towing the brand new Amtrak engine so it's about the most eclectic group of locomotives you'll find on a train anywhere we're still not really sure what is going to happen we we've been here uh they've been working on this for a few hours and we're not sure if you know this could turn into a bus situation or they're going to get fixed we're still hoping they're going to get it fixed and get us back on the road to Chicago tonight sometime and uh good thing is that's been treating as well and we're optimistic will be going soon but we made it all right this is called All Aboard so we're about to get back on so since our train is about nine hours late we're gonna be on for one more meal and that is dinner tonight and they had a different menu uh we've been doing traditional dining all the last couple days and today they said we had a lot of new choices we're not really sure why there are new choices but there are so we have the beef stew which is what I got there was also a mac and cheese and uh a couple other things a chili and just some pasta with chicken so when Ali went ahead and got the chili with a bunch of toppings and they had a roll and then we got some drinks and they also had some desserts and he just said they found some extra desserts so we're not even sure what these are so this is a mystery opening for all of us and it's cheesecake okay door number one cheesecake and I'm guessing that's chocolate because I love this choco let's see this this is also not on the menu I don't know where they get this from but you won't find it on any Amtrak menu that we've seen it is a chocolate lava cake so there you have it somehow we were late I have a little bit of food but we came up with all new meal choices and it looks really really good so we're gonna go ahead and eat right now we have made it to beautiful Ottumwa Iowa and you might be able to tell from the sky it is sunset time Sun is setting behind me uh even though we were supposed to be in Chicago in the afternoon so we're around about nine hours behind um tip for you for this if this is the first time going to be riding on one of these trains don't plan anything the day of arrival so don't plan any type of flights or big transfer you need to make because there's a decent chance you could be a little bit late so um Amtrak staff has been treating us really really well on board even through these delays and we've just really enjoyed the ride because we are not scheduled to leave Chicago for two more days we've learned our lesson in the past don't make tight connection so we've just been enjoying the extra time and having a good time on board fast couple extra meals and it's been great uh next stop will be in Chicago it's going to be probably after midnight and really dark so we're gonna sign off here from Iowa it has been a great trip thanks for coming along with us and we will see you on the next video all right guys so you just heard Rob say that we were planning on getting in at about midnight well there were more delays so we actually ended up getting in a little closer to about 3 3 A.M to Chicago but our attendant was absolutely amazing and he actually strongly encouraged us to call Amtrak after you know the next day after we got some sleep to call them up and just let them know what happened and see what they would do and so I did just that the next day after some coffee and a snack I called 1-800 USA Rail and the department there that they put me through to the complaint department or I can't remember what they call it but anyways they put me through to a different department not the person you get when you call 1-800 USA Rail and they made things right they gave us a 500 voucher which made our trip only 500 so basically gave us half of our money back in a voucher to use for a future trip which we are already making plans for so that was really good it was really a pleasant trip overall all um even though we had so many delays and so many different types of complications they did take care of us like we said and um definitely worth calling and letting them know when something goes wrong during your trip all right so as I shared In that clip uh that was resolved really well and we were very happy with how that turned out because we ended up only paying half price um for a really nice train ride and um we were able to use them that 500 towards another train ride which we were gonna do anyways yeah our next one that went really bad was the the co-star light we were supposed to be going from Seattle to Los Angeles to get on a cruise we were going to be riding the uh the carnival Radiance out of Los Angeles if you don't know we have a cruise Channel we do have a cruise Channel we put all that on if you like cruises Corona life cruises you can check that out but we were supposed to be going down for a cruise and there was so much uh flooding I believe it was all over Los Angeles or all over California that the train got canceled and so we were like well how are we going to get to our cruise because it was literally two days before and so we ended up renting a car in Seattle and just driving it down and we weren't really sure the whole way because a lot of the highways were closed we were just thought well we'll just go and just keep driving until we find a road to get us to La yeah and we found out the night before while we were on an Amtrak train we found out we got a an email and a text alert that our train had been canceled for the next morning while we were on the Empire Builder on our way to Seattle so we found out when we got there and then we had kind of a you know we had to decide do we want to try we were in Seattle so we could get on a flight and fly to Los Angeles or we could rent a car we kind of looked at the pricing between the two and well in case you didn't know we really loved road trips so we thought we'll rent a car and we'll do a good old-fashioned road trip so check it out quick change of plans this morning as you can see we are in a car and not on the co-star light there was a cancellation Amtrak just notified us they canceled the coast Starlight route for today because of flooding in California severe rains for the last few weeks flooded the tracks they canceled the route and we do have to get to Los Angeles by tomorrow because we have a cruise we're doing right there so we didn't really know what to do flooding wasn't gonna go away in just a couple days so we rented a car not really sure how that will affect us because roads can flood too but we're gonna try to drive down there and do our best and so plan for today is I think to try to get to Sacramento stay the night there and then the next day get to La so instead of a training for this portion we are doing a good old American road trip and we're excited about it we're gonna have some fun I made it as far as Sacramento last night from Seattle in one day and did pretty well but Sacramento is where the uh the major flooding is so kind of drive through that right now it is raining quite a bit and empty water everywhere so hopefully we can make it through but uh we're on I-5 and some of the lanes are closed we'll see how it goes so on that trip we used points to book that trip and the way they resolved it was they just refunded all of our points now that was okay but it really wasn't the greatest resolution because it kind of left us enlarged because the prices of the flights had gone way up the prices of the rental cars had gone up prices of hotels had gone up we had to get all we had to get a rental car and a hotel so we ended up paying probably a little bit more than we would have paid in cash to do the Amtrak trip and it really wasn't the greatest just because there wasn't really any uh you know resolution for the fact that when your train gets canceled the prices goes up for whatever you're gonna replace it with and and they don't really take that into account so we did end up resolving it pretty well we did make the cruise we got there in time and so it was all good but uh yeah it was a little unsettling to have to try to make all those last minute adjustments and plans along the way yeah all right the next one also involves the co-star light although we did have a nice trip we did have a situation where the air conditioning was only working on half of the train car that we were in so the air conditioning was working on the half with the bedrooms but was not working on the half with the roomets so that's 10 of us up there and it was uh quite toasty yeah and they they cranked the air up all the way but it really made almost no difference so the people in the bedrooms were freezing and the people in the roommates were burning and it was just kind of a miserable ride so we did kind of just try to move around the train go to the observation car go to the uh you know the 99 car but it was really uncomfortable in the room and you know they they did take care of it though so we'll show you a little bit about what that looked like and what our thoughts were while we were doing it right now then we'll explain how they took care of it okay so we are stopped at a fresh air break here in San Luis Obispo and our train car is having a little bit of trouble with the air so it's quite toasty so this is a true fresh air break for us because it is much cooler out here than it is of the train right yeah it is getting ready to hit the most beautiful part of this yeah so we're pumped we're excited about that also you guys got to see this I gotta show you this so Rob has what we call convertible pants they're pants but they're also shorts and this is how warm he got shorts yeah all right so on that one the conductor actually came around to each one of us because we all had to have our doors open nobody had their doors closed because you were just gonna burn up in there with the sun beating down on the room conductor came around to each one of us and apologized it was obviously something beyond their control and he encouraged each one of us to call and let them know gave us all the information on the train car that we were in so we could tell them hey this train car needs to get fixed and also uh you know to ask them for some sort of compensation which they gave us almost all of our money back on that ride yeah so it did get rectified it wasn't one of the more uncomfortable rides because it wasn't just a delay which is generally fine it was actually you were just really uncomfortable the whole way there so that may have been the worst one of all of them so the next one is going to be the Empire Builder and it really had to do with delay because we got caught in a hail storm which is really kind of unique but it was a little bit unsettling while it was happening uh but it did work out for the better so let's take a look at how that that played out okay so we were preparing for bed but um we just got an alert emergency weather alert that said there's a tornado warning in the area until 10 p.m it is 9 30 and it is lightning out we've seen that for a little bit here but didn't realize we had storms out there so we'll be taking the train is still moving pretty quickly here so I don't know if we're going to be moving out of that um but we'll stay up for a little bit longer and see all right you can probably hear the hail now hitting um we can hear it we're still watching we're still moving and we're making our next stop so we're still progressing wow so we made it through that with you know a few hours delay but the upside to it was since we were delayed we got into the Glacier National Park area a little bit late and we got in right at Sunset and so we got to see the park and all its Glory with the sunset and really that worked out perfectly yeah so this is our top six I don't know which one we would say we didn't really rank them in order what would be the worst and whatnot they were all not fun essentially but don't know if you have had any of these come up or maybe you were on the same ride with us on one of these uh go ahead and comment down in the comment section or if you have any questions leave that down in the comment section for us guys don't forget to subscribe to the channel and we'll see you next time

Channel: Grounded Life Travel

Views: 47,164

Keywords: amtrak, amtrak what happens when disaster strikes, can amtrak still drive in the rain, will amtrak still go in a tornado, amtrak weather delays, will amtrak refund your money if your train is late, what will amtrak do about delays, amtrak delays, amtrak bad weather, amtrak tornado, amtrak storm, amtrak tracks flooded

Id: ky5O3wNx67M

Length: 26min 9sec (1569 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 29 2023