Posted on 07/06/2004 7:54:17 PM PDT by Land_of_Lincoln_John
July 6, 2004 (Portage, Wisconsin) — Two Amtrak trains heading to Chicago have been stopped because of a police investigation.
It happened near the town of Portage, Wisconsin, which is north of Madison.
The trains involved are the Empire Builder number 8 from Seattle, and number 28 from Portland.
The two trains meet in Spokane and head into Chicago together.
All of the passengers were taken off the trains and boarded chartered buses to continue their trip to Chicago.
There is no word yet on what caused police to stop the trains.
I can still remember riding the "City of Roses" (Union Pacific) from Portland to Chicago lo those many years ago.
Yet another reason to drive....
Weather would be the most likely, but it was clear, dry and calm in Milwaukee today. Mitchell field was very busy and they were running out of places to park aircraft according to chatter on the airport fire department frequencies.
I can really feel for you dealing with 3 kids under 4 stuck in an aircraft. That's the kind of trauma you can't always put behind you. Your trauma, not the kids.:)
Is that "The Madison" -- sister city to Rafah, Gaza?
Did the train stop in Madison?
But finding a gas station open early in the morning in North Dakota can be a challenge; if it weren't for the guy with the gas pumps in his front lawn out in the middle of nowhere we would have had to hoof it.
Thanks for the best laugh I had all day.
That reminds me of central Utah (I-70). I think there was a stretch of interstate for nearly 100 miles where there were no exits or gas stations.
There was a rest stop that I pulled off at, and I looked up at the stars. I could see the Milky Way, even without waiting for my eyes to adjust. It was quite impressive.
America, the beautiful
Update:
"Explosive specialists and K-nine units searched the train. Columbia County Sheriff's Lieutenant Detective Wayne Smith says some passengers had fireworks in their luggage but no explosives were found.
The passengers were allowed to re-board the train, and continue the trip into Chicago with their arrival delayed until after midnight. "
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/070604_ns_amtrak_stopped.html
It must have been a tip about some potential terrorist attack.
Stars?
I've been to that rest stop. You were looking at a -- candy machine.
UPDATE AND DETAILED INFO:
http://portage.scwn.com/articles/2004/07/06/news/news3.txt
Passengers react to train threat
By Katie Derksen
Daily Register
A small Wisconsin town of approximately 10,000 people was the last place almost 300 Chicago-bound travelers expected to spend an idle Tuesday afternoon.
Just before 1 p.m., two bomb threat phone calls were made to Amtrak, which caused the threatened train to stop at the Portage train depot. Every passenger detrained and filled the intersection of Oneida and Dunn streets.
All the passengers were boarded onto school buses and transported to John Muir Elementary School, where each passenger was interviewed, one by one.
===
My previously posted article had the latest about the result, that they searched for explosives but say they didn't find any and the trains continued to Chicago.
America, the tacky
Many people don't realize how true that statement is.
I could easily spend one month each in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming. There is so much to do out West, plus there aren't that many people (or city lights), so one can still see the stars.
Please let me know if you find out! My SON was there today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is this passing through your neighborhood?
That would be about on time for Amtrak.
On June 29th I took the Gold Coast out of Sacramento. It was supposed to meet number 28 at Portland but it was already 2 hours late when it got to Sacramento and couldn't make up the time. All the pasengers going east had to get off in Klamath Falls Oregon and be bused to Pasco, Wa where those going further East were able to catch number 28 there.
It is the pits that Amtrak has to pull off onto the siding for every freight train. All in all I still enjoyed the train trip I had.
Nothing bad happened, some people just got a brief visit to Milwaukee. It looks like storms shut down O'hare for a while.
After frantically posting, before FOOLISHLY not finishing the thread.......I saw that. But a BIG THANKS for letting me know. I don't care HOW old they get...ya worry.
By Amtrak standards, that's right on time.
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