A Cold Night in Michigan

by Joe Aiello, Director of Community Engagement & Organizing

Close your eyes and imagine this scenario: you are on a train heading to a destination to celebrate an event. It could be anything, really. While you are on this trip, the train, without warning, stops dead. The onboard staff immediately jumps to action, and alerts the passengers to the issue and asks you to hold tight. In what seems like no time at all, the conductor is on the PA announcing that buses are on the way and that they will work on the train. Everyone gets on the way to their destination with minimal delay.

Sounds good right? Sure, you are slightly inconvenienced by having to ride a bus, but you get where you need to be.

That is NOT what happened to a little over one hundred passengers (yours truly included) last week.

This was a failure at every level.

I take no joy in writing this blog, but it is something that absolutely can not be defended, and the details need to be shared on behalf of all on board.

Sadly, it’s become the fourth piece in an “ongoing series”.

(read “parts” One, Two, Three)

In the blogs I linked above, I have written about equipment issues in the winter and about terrible communication practices - this one is the bastard child of the two.

If you haven’t heard by now, there was a bit of an issue in Michigan on Thanksgiving. I was on that train with my partner heading to Detroit for a quick trip to see a hockey game on Friday. I did my best to keep notes after things went haywire - so pardon if not all the details are filled in. A lot of this was written in real time from a freezing train, and I’ve been sick all weekend.

The trip started easy enough. Wolverine train #352 left Chicago right at 2:15 and headed east. Everything was cruising along, even ended up early at one of the stations before getting to Battle Creek. Arrived at Battle Creek for the crew change and continued on.

Three hours down. Two more to go. That’s when everything went wrong.

Around 6:30p est, the train stopped with no explanation. Conductor finally got on the PA and said that the train was “dragging ice” and needed to be inspected, but that we would be on our way shortly. About an hour later, the train moved forward about 20 feet and came to a sudden stop and lost power (phone was plugged in at the time and stopped working). There was no communication from staff. The only thing we had heard from was Amtrak’s text message system.

I don’t remember if we had heard another PA announcement about the stoppage, but just before 8p est, the Conductor came into our car (business class, at the end of the train) to tell us that they can’t figure out the issue. Buses have been called from Flint (2 hours away) to allow us to continue our travel east. At that point, he opened up the back door, so people could smoke (I really wish I was lying). Mind you, it was around 25 degrees out (with a much colder wind chill), and we were already wearing our jackets, etc. to stay warm. Passengers were now trying to figure out how to get rides from family, friends, Uber/Lyft at our location.

Fellow passengers and I got fed up with the open door and went to find the conductor so he could close it again, since it was freezing in the car - plus it now smelled of smoke. He told us that the westbound train was now coming from Ann Arbor to push the train back.

No further word from staff. At 10p est, we all received a text saying that school buses were dispatched. We didn’t hear from the conductor until about 30 mins after. He said that no one would be allowed to leave the train and to cancel any rides we may have secured. The plan was now for the school buses to take us back to Battle Creek to meet the coach buses to then continue the trip. He then handed out Mylar rescue blankets to everyone.

The school buses came about 10:45p, but it was only two of them - along with train 355. Local firefighters and police helped get people onto the buses, but (and I overheard this directly) they didn't account for the luggage so they filled up before about 20 of us could get on. We were told that the buses would make the trip to drop people off and then one would return for the rest of us, but we were allowed to board 355 to warm up in the meantime. We overheard from the crew that the batteries on 352 finally died a few minutes after 11p - made it off just in time.

Then yet another change of plans. The school bus was not returning and the “Remnants of 352” would stay on 355 while they hooked it up to the dead train and pushed it to Battle Creek, at which point we would be transferred to the waiting 354 to continue east.

The Conductor on 355 was much more frequent with announcements and communication than we had on 352, and she was clearly as frustrated as we were as the issues continued to pile up. The new delay was that they could not get the air hook up between the trains to work, and they were troubleshooting. Around 11:45p, they announced that they got the air issue fixed, and we are about to head towards Battle Creek. We left about 20 mins after the announcement.

We very slowly made our way back west and at 1:14a we reached the CN yard outside of Battle Creek. We had to wait for them to disconnect the two trains and then for us to get on 354, but they couldn’t get the data into the system because we were now a longer/heavier train for us to pull into the yard.

About 10 mins later, we overheard on the conductor’s radio that CN would not let us into the yard while the dead train was in the lead, but we hadn’t been told this officially until 5-10 mins later. We had to cut the train off outside the yard and then shove off 2 miles to the east in order to swing in front to drag the dead train in. We made the move and started connecting the dead train at 2:48a.

Train stayed put for an hour and there was zero communication on why we hadn’t moved. I ended up walking to the cafe car (they were giving people free food at least) and overheard the staff say that everything is hooked up again, but they do not know what is wrong.

At just about 4:08a, we finally pulled into Battle Creek and were seated on train 354 approximately 10 mins later. We set off (on our 3rd train of the night) at 4:36a and arrived in Detroit at 6:55a - just about 17 hours after we first left Chicago.

I will repeat - this was a failure at every level.

The onboard staff could only do so much, even when they actually did something to communicate with us. There was no back-up to the back-up to the back-up. Three trains full of people suffered because someone at Amtrak decided that it was better to try to fix something and not have a plan for the passengers. It was a holiday. It was freezing outside. They should have been able to know in about 30 mins if this was “go/no go” and then make sure over 100 people wouldn’t be stranded.

For those who will point out that this isn’t on Amtrak, that it’s a state route, yadda yadda - I am very aware of whose locomotive it is, how the Midwest pool works, etc. It is my job to know these things.

You know who doesn't know all that? The people traveling on the same train as me, who missed Thanksgiving dinner and declared that they will never take Amtrak again. The people who had to take extra layers out of their suitcases just to sit on a dead train in freezing weather without proper communication from on board staff.

It is absolutely on Amtrak to be transparent with the public and to work with their state partners because no one is ever going to say "I'm never taking a Michigan DOT (or NextGen Committee) rail department train again". My own partner has now sworn off taking the train, no matter the weather, after this. There were families with young kids on this train, and imagine if there were people with ADA needs.

It is Amtrak's name on the train and their reputation. Now tell us how you are going to fix this - and not just direct us to customer relations in 3-4 business days for a refund. What was the plan? What IS the plan? What roles do Siemens, the state partners, Amtrak, and local authorities all play in the future to ensure that the passengers, not the engineer’s plan to fix it on the fly, come first?

You also need to question what is going on (or lack thereof) at the Chicago yard where all these problematic trains seem to originate from. The majority of emails I get from our members who tell us about their own issues and delays start there.

And that explanation must be public.

I really don’t want to write part five.

[Closing note: I read that the Texas Eagle had a minor derailment on the same day heading to San Antonio from Chicago. Those passengers were well cared for, fed, even taken to a local hotel at Amtrak’s expense. Train 22 was handled as well as it could be. As for Train 352? I’m still waiting to hear back about the hotel room that I booked and couldn’t check into because of what happened]