SWC 4 departing LAX 9-8--23 arrived in Chicago 11 1/2 hours late at about 1:30 am. First it was freight interference in California. Then around Kingman AZ there was mechanical problems , and then a track inspection in New Mexico. I got onboard in ABQ. I was supposed depart ABQ at 11:58 am, but instead departed at 6:30 pm, so about 6 1/2 hours late at that point. All the way through Albuquerque and beyond the train never traveled any faster than 25 miles per hour. That slow of a speed is not typical for ABQ. We never caught up, just kept getting more and more behind. Somewhere in Kansas, that train disappeared from the Amtrak Track-Your-Train map, so I couldn't really tell what speed we were going at, but it seemed slow all the way. Does anyone know why it would have disappeared from the tracker map?
I was traveling coach, but I heard an announcement to the sleeper passengers that breakfast would be brought to them in their compartment, so I suspected that something was wrong with the dining car. I asked the lounge attendant and he said the AC in the dining car wasn't working, so it was unusable. The cafe/lounge was running out of a number of items also because of the unexpected delay.
At some point, there was an announcement that we would be missing all of the connecting trains and that we would be put up in a hotel overnight and arrangements made to get us to our destinations would be made. When the announcement was made the status of train 4 on the app indicated that it was 6-6.5 hours late, so I was still hopeful that I could still get the LakeShore Limited at 9:30 pm, but Amtrak knew better because in Kansas City,we had to take a detour due to problems with a bridge. The detour probably added 3 hours to the delay. I was able to change my hotel reservation that I had in NY where I'm going without losing any money on the hotel.
Upon arriving in Chicago at 1:30 pm, I noticed the head engine was a BNSF, but had forgotten to see if there were other engines or not and what color any other was. At Union Station in Chicago we were given hotel and food vouchers. Some people were given tickets for further travel, but not me. I was told that I should go to the ticket desk the next day. And my e-ticket has disappeared from my phone, I suppose because I didn't get on that train at 9:30 pm. We were all put on a bus (pretty much filled it, I believe) and bussed to the Swisshotel where I got into my room at 3 am. It is now the morning of Monday September 11. The bus will take us back to Chicago Union Station at 11 am. In the light of day, I'm not sure my food voucher will work because their is a note to the vendor that it has to be stamped and it wasn't. We will see.
A few minutes ago I got a phone call from Amtrak indicating that a "transportation voucher" will be provided to me. I'm not totally sure what that means, but I wonder if it means that because I bought my ticket with AGR points, I'll get them back?
They provided snack packs to us and got us pizza in Fort Madison. They're trying, but I'm still depressed. Well, I also had a sudden death in my extended family, so that probably put me on the depression path rather than the severe delay and missing a day of what I'm traveling to.
