‘Not holding you hostage’: Amtrak
conductor scolds passengers who called
911 during nightmare delay

Reason to drive with family and/or friends and plan an alternate route if possible beforehand… or fly. Reminds me of driving from VA for a Memorial of a loved one from El Paso,TX with two Daughters. We thought Texas would never end, it was so dark that night and so few gas stations for ‘pit stops.’ Alternative plans are most always advisable… TBIYTC

Just TRY to keep me on that train if I decide to get off it. Local cops cant help? I bet they can. So can local citizens.

No alternate routes no passing sidings no cushion at all in our railroad infrastructure. Our economy could be shut down if one or two rail lines are damaged. Passenger trains are legally required to be given priority over freight but the RRS ignore that law - yet Amtrak insists on following some idiotic law preventing the conductor from opening the doors on a stopped train. Amtrak has gotten demonstrably worse in the past two years. They do not even publish their train schedules anymore. No dining cars. Can't we do anything right anymore?

The legal definition is false imprisonment is rather broad and the legal standard rather low ie mundane. Let's say Andy is arguing with Brenda. Brenda, exasperated, wants to leave the room. Andy closes the door and stands in the doorway. Boom. False imprisonment as Brenda is being restrained. Absent physical force or injury, it's a misdemeanor but still a crime. The train driver's announcement was the federal bureaucracy in all its annoying, arrogant full flower. Annoyed by passengers who rightly called police, the driver gave a snarky denial they were being held hostage. Could they leave? No. Were they there against their will? Yes. Did it take over 24 hrs? Yes. There is a legal case here and the train driver should be first in the witness stand - or even made a defendant.

At least Mousilini made the trains run on time.....

The next time I travel, I think I will walk.

I took Amtrak twice from Austin to Dallas twice to pick up vehicles I purchased. It's normally a 3 hour drive by car. The first trip took 4 1/2 hours and I had to have someone pick me up in Ft Worth because it was delayed and was going to be there several more hours. The 2nd trip only got me to Waco where we were delayed several hours before busses took us to Ft Worth where we waited a couple more hours before a train took us the rest of the way to Dallas. That trip was 12 hours. That was the last time I'll ever take a train.

I am sure the Federal Departmen of Transportation will be right on this...

It seems that nothing runs on time any more. Even worse is a plane that loads up and taxis out to the runway but can't take off for one reason for another. People have been known to be imprisoned in a hot plane for hours and not permitted to get off. Call the police and they arrest the passengers. Tell me that's not a hostage situation. Sitting in an airport is bad enough but stuck on a plane between the usual two obese passengers is pure torture.

Par for the course with Amtrak. They don't care. They don't have to.

Isn't nationalized rail service wonderful? /sarcasm off And these are the same people that want to control you by 'forcing' you to buy/drive combustible electric vehicles, demonize fossil fuels, even take your gas stove away. All for the sake of your health and welfare, mind you.

Trains - other than carrying freight and maybe boutique tourist/scenic trains - it's 19th century technology. You have to get to the train station, usually nowhere to park, etc. Just don't see the convenience of trains anymore. I drove to Naples, FL for Thanksgiving last year. It's a 1000 mile trip and my halfway point is Savannah, GA and spent the night there, nice seafood dinner and good night's sleep. Next day finished the trip to Naples with time to spare if I wanted to stop somewhere and enjoy Buc-Ees in Daytona Beach or St. Augustine.

The last time I rode on a U.S. passenger train was December 1968. I can’t imagine doing that now. Why not just drive or fly? It would be cheaper and faster. U.S. railroads aren’t meant to carry passengers anymore. If the government hadn’t started Amtrak, there wouldn’t be any passenger trains. U.S. railroads carry freight, lots of it, very efficiently. That’s what ought to be on the rails, not people.

The last time I rode the train was from Denver to Reno a few years ago. To my surprise, we departed and arrived on time. The scenery was magnificant - a winter wonderland. However, those were the only good things about the trip. My lunch and dinner were OK, but not very good. My breakfast "special" was inedible. The snack bar couldn't change a $20 bill and only sold Pepsi products. The shower in my room first wouldn't turn off, then failed early in my morning shower. Luckily, I was just wet, not soapy. As an aside, it is always a good idea to pack food when taking a trip on either a plane or train. Cheese crackers, granola bars, dry cereal, nuts, candy, water. When I fly, my last stop before the gate is to pick up a large bottle of water. It never hurts to have one.

A friend is a train buff and booked a "wonderful" train trip with the bubble roofed observation cars that was scheduled to pass through the pine and aspen forests of the Rockies, I forget exactly where, for a spectacular view of the mountains and fall colors of the forests. There was to be a fine dining car for excellent gourmet meals, too. So - beautiful views in the mountains of the fall colors mixed with fine dining on an old time train.....how wonderful! First, the dining/cooking car broke down, couldn't be used, so they had sandwiches, pop cans and snack foods. Then they had a problem with the equipment some way and got delayed for hours so that they passed through the scenic parts of the trip at night, instead of the daytime, as advertised. They arrived a day late, and with everyone in a foul mood. A fairly typical AMTRAK trip, apparently. AMTRAK is a government subsidized rolling disaster....although too much of the time it doesn't roll. ROOT PROBLEM: AMTRAK does not own the tracks and the people who DO own the tracks make their money on freight and the passenger trains are a PITA that gets shunted aside without significant regard for their scheduls any time they get in the way of a freight train. And AMTRAK has to agree to these garbage terms or they use NO rails at all. There is no fix for this unless the freight companies want to do passenger trains and give them priority, and that isn't going to happen. And the second biggest train company in the USA, Canadian National Railway Company.....is owned by the Canadian government, and cares even LESS about AMTRAK, since they aren't even Americans. The biggest is Union Pacific, and none of the RR companies care one bit about passenger service, they abandoned it decades ago. The AMTRAK trains are a nuisance that they shunt aside whenever they want, and AMTRAK can do nothing about it, not owning the tracks or having any priority on the tracks.

This is what they want for all of us. "We're the government, and we are forcing you to do as we say." This constitutional republic died on January 20, 2009.