Passengers on a train earlier this week thought the worst was happening after their trip was delayed for nearly 20 hours.
According to ABC News, the event began on the evening of Jan. 9, when 563 passengers boarded the train from Washington D.C. with the expectation of arriving in Florida, in the Orlando area, the following day. But the individuals’ expected 17-hour ride turned into a 37-hour journey because of freight derailments.
The outlet stated that the Amtrak train was headed southbound when it stopped in Denmark, SC, and had to find an alternative route because a CSX freight train had crashed into an empty vehicle on Monday night.
Amtrak confirmed the news late Tuesday in a statement saying, “The train was detoured off its normal route in
order to continue operating south. We have been providing regular updates to customers, along with meals, snack packs, and beverages. The onboard staff is working with pet owners to provide bathroom breaks.”At the same time, CSX also revealed that the crash took place sometime before 11 p.m. and there were no reported injuries. On Tuesday Amtrak shared that they were also facing delays because the Auto Train service was canceled and its other trains, including Silver Meteor and Silver Star, were missing stops because of the detour.
Once passengers became aware of the chaos, a handful of people called the authorities and claimed they were being held hostage. Many of the calls were captured on video and shared on social media. As the conductor caught wind of the passengers’ actions, they tried to de-escalate the situation by apologizing for any “inconvenience” this experience had caused.
That person said, “For those of you that are calling the police, we are not holding you hostage. We are giving you all the information in which we have. We are sorry about the inconvenience.”
Since then, no additional details have been released at this time.