Posted on 06/06/2004 10:41:18 AM PDT by myprecious
Fox News reporting that an Amtrak Train has been evacuated near Cumberland, Maryland. There appearently were concerns about the route earlier. Updates will follow when available.
Precisely. They will not give us advance warning, ever.
Only if it's the TRUTH, and not our Insider Troll, who spends her life trying to pretend she's somebody.
The part about "they didn't do anything with my luggage" is what tripped the alarm for me. I ride the trains all the time, and "they" don't ever "do anything" with luggage.
You have to present ID now when you buy a ticket. Which doesn't happen on the train anymore, anywhere in the Northeast Corridor between Boston and DC. They will no longer sell you a ticket on board, unless you got on at one of the few stations without a ticket office. That's been the case since January 1.
If she's claiming that she got on the train outside the Northeast Corridor, and no one asked for her ticket during all those hours, well-- I can think of three explanations for that, but two of them wouldn't reflect well on Terrilynne. ;D
Hmmmm......;-D
Whoops. Thanks for the reminder. As the Gipper said, "Trust, but verify." You caught me only trusting.
LOL!
*grins* Just trying to do my part, ma'am.
Ok, are they trying to blow up the old Kelly Tire plant. There is also a liquor store near the tracks that may be the target.
Not exactly a large metro area threat.
Oofa, Lufa Slick.
Can you say "Federal Relocation Arc?"
...a 6 Pack of Iron City. More WMD's.
Hmmm.
I didn't think the trainyard was the big draw.
[my guess was "the phone company" had something up there]...LOL!
Are you suggesting that our Insider Troll is either a terrorist or a trainhopping hobo?
I am inclined to think that it is not the former, since I understand that 50 is the IQ cutoff for al quaeda membership. Hey, even THEY have some standards...
Which leaves us with the image of the Insider Troll "riding the rods". Not an impossibility, I suppose.
I know of people who have beaten fares by staying one step ahead of the conductors for the whole trip (or hiding in various bathrooms for the duration).
The only time in my life I haven't been asked for my ticket on a train was one Thanksgiving night on the LIRR. So many people had packed onto that train that it was impossible to move through the cars, let alone punch everyone's ticket during the hour and a half it took to get back to the city.
Thanks for the ping!
CD, I love that graphic. Keeps them guessing....
Only post from Train Troll.
Hmmmmm....
The reason they didn't take my ticket is that they had to do some shuffling of folks around to get three seats together (traveling with my 2 children). The folks that had been in the seats previously HAD given tickets and had already received the little green slips underneith the overhead storage. Remember, overbooked train, boarding in Chicago, 1/2 hour late to begin with, innocent mother with 2 innocent children...they were not seeing a huge security threat (correctly).
This is the first time I have been to this site (which I'm sure doesn't help my credibility) but I truly was on the train and have sent Amtrak a very lengthy email letting them know of their pathetic security.
This is the email I sent to Amtrak....
I was on train #30 that evacuated in Cumberland and I just want to voice my extreme dissatisfaction and disappointment with Amtrak. My children and I boarded the train in Burlington Iowa, heading to Chicago. Other than being close to 3 hours late, the trip to Chicago was quite enjoyable and uneventful. The #30 train headed to DC was held for those of us that were on the California Zephyr. We were held on the tracks, and then quickly herded to the observation car where they asked us to put our stuff and stay there as they needed to find us seats. After waiting quite some time, we were placed in the car directly behind the observation car. Here is where my complete and utter disbelief comes in. Never once on this train were we asked for ID, to see our tickets, or did anyone come take our tickets. Those of us who boarded in Chicago from the CA Zephyr arriving late were never asked, as I checked with several people. One of the gentlemen who raised so much suspicion was one of those boarding last minute with me. Was he asked for his ticket? ID? Now, in my opinion, he was the misfortune of racial targeting, as I sat and spoke with him for probably 3 hours prior to being pulled off of the train and in no way was he exhibiting any suspicious behavior.
The rest of my dissatisfaction is how this entire situation was handled by Amtrak. I happened to be downstairs waiting to get off of the train with many other people while we sat and waited in the middle of Cumberland. No one came down at that point and said, “We aren’t going to be opening up these doors for quite some time”. We went back to our seats after about a ½ hour, waiting for the train to move again. We then were told the train was having “mechanical problems” but we would be moving again shortly. After 30-45 minutes, we began moving again. I then went back downstairs to see if the doors would be opened when we got to the station, as I wanted to make sure to get off and get some air. The conductor and an armed police officer were down by the doors, while two more officers had the gentleman I had been talking to upstairs confined to the old smoking area. I asked the conductor if these doors would be opened once we stopped and he said to go back upstairs and wait until we stopped. Once we did, a bunch of us went back downstairs to get off. More mechanical problems, we were told, and they were going to be letting us off. Mind you, they initially couldn’t decide which side of the train to have us walk around on, who was getting off, etc. There was a lot of confusion between Amtrak employees and nobody was taking control. Furthermore, while all of this was going on, my 8-year old son spotted the sniper armed with a scoped-rifle in the bushes, which scared him so much he started crying, thinking we were going to get shot.
After being moved a safe distance from the train, we stood and waited in the hot sun for what seemed to be an eternity. The rumors started flying, as no one from Amtrak was telling us what was going on. After a couple of hours, the police finally came and told us we were going to be bussed to the Holiday Inn. Again, nothing from Amtrak. The only logical thing that was done at this point was to let those of us that needed medication back onto the train to get it.
We were not told anything directly from Amtrak until 7:00 pm that night. I believe we initially stopped in Cumberland somewhere around 11:00 am. To make matters worse, my husband had been waiting in DC since 11:00 am. I couldn’t get through to him, couldn’t get through to a DC agent, and those at Amtrak in DC had absolutely no clue what was going on or what to tell him. When I finally spoke with him at 5:00, I was telling him what little information I did know and he was relaying it to the Amtrak agent. By the time we were on the buses headed to DC (at roughly 9:00 pm) he called again, as they were telling him at the station that we were back on the train headed to DC. I said, “No, we are on buses” and off course, he then told the Amtrak agent, who had no idea we were on buses. We finally arrived at 11:00, 13 hours late, and went to the area we were being directed. Back in Cumberland, we were told the train would beat us to DC, and we would be able to get our luggage when we arrived. Of course, the train was still 90 minutes from arriving and we would have to wait. My family chose not to stay and wait, as you can’t possibly get luggage for 250+ people off of 1 train when it is scattered all over the train in a timely fashion. We drove the 3 hours home, as we were exhausted and ready to get this experience behind us.
Monday I had to go out and buy clothes for the children as they only had the clothes on their backs which they had been wearing since Saturday, as well as replacing some toys to keep them occupied while we waited to learn the fate of our luggage. Later, I called Amtrak to see if the luggage had been located. Thankfully, all of my luggage was found (I think) and is being shipped to me today via Fedex.
I would truly like to say that our family would consider traveling by rail again, as it is a wonderful experience for the children, and much more relaxing than flying or driving, but I fear this experience may have soured the family on Amtrak.
That is an incredible story! "The rest of the story". Thanks for the read. . .Scary at just how disorganized they appeared to be. . . Sniper? WOW!
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