Hundreds of passengers stranded for hours on Amtrak train in rural South Carolina

An Amtrak train traveling from the D.C. area to Florida was stuck for hours in rural South Carolina with limited food supplies after its route was diverted because of the derailment of a CSX freight train.

The 17-hour trip turned into a 37-hour nightmare for passengers on the Auto Train 53.

The train departed Lorton, Va., about 5:30 p.m. Monday and was scheduled to arrive in Sanford, Fla., about 10 a.m. Tuesday. More than 30 hours later, hundreds of passengers had still not reached their final destination after the train came to a halt in a wooded area near Denmark, S.C.

As of late Tuesday night, Amtrak said the train was on the move again. It arrived at Sanford at 6 a.m. Wednesday, Amtrak said, with a 20-hour delay.

Amtrak spokesperson Christina Leeds said in an email that the Auto Train - a specialized train where passengers bring their cars with them - had been “impacted by significant delays due to a CSX freight derailment in South Carolina” and was detoured off its normal route so it could continue moving south.

The incident is the latest extreme delay on the train service. In October, an Amtrak trip from Detroit to Chicago that was supposed to take about five hours took 19 hours, leaving passengers stuck without electricity, water or food, ABC7 Chicago reported. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 1 in 5 Amtrak trains were late in 2021.

Leeds wrote that during Tuesday’s delay, Amtrak had been “providing regular updates to customers, along with meals, snack packs and beverages.” She added that onboard employees were working with pet owners to provide bathroom breaks for animals.

On Wednesday morning she said the carrier will be providing refunds to passengers affected by the delay.

In a statement, CSX said the derailment of the freight train, which caused the delay, happened when it came in contact with an unoccupied vehicle on the tracks in Lake City, S.C., with 25 rail cars and two locomotives affected.

“There were no injuries to the crew of the train and no hazardous materials involved,” the company said. “CSX crews safely cleared the tracks and train operations resumed at reduced speeds around 5 p.m. Tuesday. The cause [is] under investigation.”

The Amtrak train was held up Tuesday afternoon waiting for a new crew to arrive because the original crew had timed out, Amtrak said. This was complicated by the fact that only some crews with specialized training can operate the Auto Train.

Several other passenger trains were impacted by the CSX derailment. Amtrak rerouted four trains that departed Monday connecting the Northeast and Florida, and it cut short the route on two trips scheduled between New York and Savannah, Ga., terminating or departing in D.C. instead of Savannah. The carrier also canceled its two Auto trains scheduled to depart Tuesday - one from Lorton and the other from Sanford.

The changes created major disruption to hundreds of train travelers on the busy Interstate 95 corridor. Auto Train 53, which travels overnight with only a scheduled stop for fuel, was carrying 563 passengers.

Some passengers turned to social media Tuesday to plead for help. A Twitter user from Potomac, Md, tweeted at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Tuesday evening describing 25 hours already on the train and no movement for more than three hours while waiting for a new crew to arrive.

“I understand unforeseen circumstances occur, but this has been handled so poorly,” the user tweeted, adding that the situation “could become potentially dangerous as many passengers are elderly and the train is running out of food.”

Dale Kalkofen, of Chesterfied, Va., said she did not even know the exact whereabouts of the train after hours of waiting in South Carolina Tuesday afternoon. “LATE, LATE, LATE,” she wrote on her Facebook page.

On Wednesday, after arriving in the Orlando metro area, she said she was “really tired” and felt like “jet lag.”

Amtrak’s Auto Train debuted in 1983. The concept of taking your automobile on vacation without having to drive it was so popular that the company received over 400 requests for reservations before it had even decided to start the service. In 2021, close to 200,000 passenger trips used the service, which is marketed today as “a stress-free journey by rail, skipping the traffic congestion on I-95.”