April 14, 2022: Disaster on the Tracks

 So... this is where things get hairy.

As I wrote in my last entry, you really couldn't have asked for a train ride to be going better than to be rolling along between Miami and Jacksonville, and to still be on time! It's rarity for long distance trains in America. 

After we left Jacksonville, I began the process of trying to fall "asleep," which basically means closing my eyes and shifting around in my fully-reclined seat for several hours. About 11:30 p.m., our train came to a sudden halt and the electricity went out. No one was sure what had happened, but I heard a conductor say "it didn't sound good." Not exactly what you want to hear, especially at night.

Most passengers were still up at that hour and some were speculating whether we had hit a vehicle, or something. No one seemed to really know. The crew made no announcements, as it usually does not during nighttime hours. At one point I heard a passenger say a conductor told them we struck a pipe, but I wasn't sure how reliable the info was.

I continued to keep my eyes closed, hoping that the situation would somehow become resolved. The power went on and off throughout the night, but the train didn't move. At one point I heard a few guys outside, so I could tell the train was being checked out. I couldn't see any police or emergency vehicles from my window, so I wasn't sure who it was.

Around 6 a.m. as the sun was coming up, we still hadn't moved. I checked my phone to see where we were, which turned out to be Hilliard Fla. -- a small town about 30 miles Northwest of Jacksonville. Some time in the next hour, the lead conductor came over the PA system and let us know we had struck some metal on the tracks overnight, which had been put there by vandals. He said the debris "messed up a whole bunch of stuff" underneath the train and that there was no way we could continue north.

Unfortunately service disruptions happen on Amtrak for a variety of reasons. In the past I've been on trains that were delayed because of an engine going dead, a train hitting a deer and bad weather. But this was the first time I had boarded a train that didn't make it to its destination. We all go into these situations taking safe travel for granted, thinking 'It'll never happen to me.'" Certainly, things could have been a lot worse, but that's not really where my head was at the moment.

After another 30 to 45 minutes, the train started backing up slowly, maybe between 10 and 15 miles per hour. The staff informed us that we'd be offloading at Jacksonville, and that once we got there they would help us figure out how to reach our destination.

I think we reached Jacksonville some time around 10 a.m. It took a while to get there due to our slow speed. Eventually the coach passengers got off the train with their belongings. There might have been 200 of us. 

No one inside or outside the station seemed to know what the plan was for getting us to our destinations. I asked the ticket agent, but she answered something to the effect of "I'm just the ticket agent. I don't know any more than you do." 

After a few minutes I saw two large charter buses pulling up to the station. A crew member informed me that those  busses were for any passengers who wished to turn around and go back to Miami, or intermediate stations south of us. But they said no transportation to destinations north would be provided. This made no sense at all! Everyone on the train was headed north. How was it of any help to us to go in the opposite direction? Were they assuming everyone on the train lived in Florida and had the ability to go home? 

My fellow passengers seemed just as incredulous as me, with some becoming quite emotional in the small Jacksonville terminal. That said, in the moment I had to solve the more immediate challenge of getting home. With my dad's help, I was able to get a hotel room for the night and a couple flights the next morning to Raleigh. I then called Amtrak's customer service and explained the situation. An agent told me they'd refund this portion of my trip. 

While I was at the station, they began separating the train into two. The half with the sleeping cars was undamaged because it was in the back of the train. As I would later find out, it would continue on to New York, albeit 15 hours late. Here's a video of the sleeper car-only train as it passes through Secaucus, N.J. 

It made more sense to Uber to my hotel near the airport, than to take a local public bus, since there wasn't a direct bus to where I was going. Plus, I was tired. As we pulled away from the station, I felt defeated. My plan to travel by train literally had a wrench thrown in it. I say defeat, because for someone who loves trains, the journey is half the fun. But reaching your destination is the other half, and always gives me a sense of personal accomplishment. Today I didn't have that. All I had was an empty feeling. 

The staff at the hotel where I was staying was kind enough to find a room for me, even though it was an hour and a half before check-in time. I spent a few hours napping, to catch up on the sleep I didn't get the previous night. 

For dinner I ordered a pizza in, since I didn't have a way of getting around. It was very tasty, and honestly probably ended up being the highlight of my day. So that's the photo I'm going to include here.