Trip From Hell: Passengers Stranded on Train for Nearly 10 Hours

Passengers left with little power and heat nearly mutiny.

ByABC News
December 17, 2010, 7:10 PM

Dec. 17, 2010 -- The passengers on Amtrak Train 188 -- all 408 of them -- endured a travel nightmare after their train was stranded for nearly 10 hours on Thursday night, at times without light or heat.

Train 188 left Washington, D.C. around 7:10 p.m. heading north to Philadelphia, but an unexpected electrical outage halted the train outside Perryville, Md. around 9:00 p.m.

According to Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm, a Delmarva Power line fell onto the Amtrak power lines about 10 miles south of Wilmington, Del., ultimately shorting out the signal system but not the power line, which supplies the trains with electricity and heat.

Eight trains along the Northeast corridor were affected by the power shortage, amounting to 1,700 passengers stuck on trains for hours. Seven of the trains were held at stations. Train 188 was the lone exception.

WJLA reporter Steven Tschida was a passenger on Train 188, tweeting his experiences throughout the night, at one point calling it "the trip from HELL."

"En route phili. Train broke down. Terrible, cold, no info," Tschida tweeted via @ABC7Stephen. "Better get what can from cafe. Looks like long night ahead.

Stephanie Benanty, a 21-year-old passenger, said she was frustrated with the lack of information Amtrak officials had about the delay.

"It was very almost impossible to find a conductor, and when we were trying to get in touch with them, they were walking by with their hands up saying, 'We know nothing,'' Benanty, a senior psychology major at George Washington University, told ABC News in a Skype interview. "It was clear they didn't know what was going on."

"Why will no one tell us anything? People are cold, hungry, and frightened. I hear yelling in other cars," Tschida tweeted.

Lights out, Passengers demand to be released

Early Friday morning, the lights on Train 188 went out and passengers began to panic.

"There's no lights on the train, and at that point, that's when I said, 'Forget it. I'm safer with strangers than being on this train,'" Benanty said.