Kicked off trains...what happens?

There are various stories posted throughout about unruly passengers being kicked off Amtrak trains, often in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, I have never witnessed this but I am certain than in most, if not all, instances these actions were warranted. I would hope conductors do not do this lightly. But I am curious what happens to these people when they are dropped off, often in the middle of the night in podunk areas? Has there ever been any serious repercussions for these people when this has happened? Idiotic behavior or not, that has to be a frightening experience.

PaTrainFan said:

There are various stories posted throughout about unruly passengers being kicked off Amtrak trains, often in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, I have never witnessed this but I am certain than in most, if not all, instances these actions were warranted. I would hope conductors do not do this lightly. But I am curious what happens to these people when they are dropped off, often in the middle of the night in podunk areas? Has there ever been any serious repercussions for these people when this has happened? Idiotic behavior or not, that has to be a frightening experience.

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Most, if not all, of the time the conductor has the dispatcher call the local police to meet the train, be it at a station or at a road crossing.

I've witnessed 3 or 4 individual incidents of people removed from the train I was on.

Most recently, it was some kind of nut case that was stopped in the process of removing the window from his upper level Superliner seat on train #1 in New Mexico, as I recall. As AmtrakBlue noted, the conductor starts the ball rolling radioing the engineer and they stopped at some crossing such that the open door with the conductor and miscreant were directly in front of the police car.

I recall seeing a drunk and disorderly person removed from the Silver Meteor (or was it the Star?) in Fayetteville to awaiting police.

I think another time was the person removed in handcuffs when we arrived somewhere...I just don't recall.

But the most memorable, to me, was when one of the cooks was removed from the diner on #5 at Sacramento account being drunk. That was about 30 years ago, maybe more. At breakfast a few minutes later, the LSA filled in the details when I asked about someone being removed.

I would assume, the best possible outcome is they get a fine, maybe a free night in the Greybar Hotel, and told to leave the police station. They're on their own to get reunited with their family and/or luggage as well as transportation to their destination. I rather doubt Amtrak would provide a free ride to their destination.

I once saw a man get taken off the crescent in Atlanta by police for arguing with the conductor. He was upset they had an empty coach on the train they weren’t using. She said “if you don’t like how I run my train you won’t be riding it.“ - he continued to complain.

He was across the aisle from me. He was never violent and he didn’t appear drunk.

I would guess in that case the police just let him go? Unless you can get a ticket for being argumentative but then I should have called the police on many customers I dealt with back in the day

A couple of instances from my recent trips, the train rendezvoused with law enforcement at an agreed upon grade crossing.
One was a truly unruley, potentially violent passenger on the Cardinal. The other a jail release who boarded the Coast Starlight without a ticket. Salinas PD took him back into custody.
Listening in on a scanner can reveal the "details".

TinCan782 said:

A couple of instances from my recent trips, the train rendezvoused with law enforcement at an agreed upon grade crossing.
One was a truly unruley, potentially violent passenger on the Cardinal. The other a jail release who boarded the Coast Starlight without a ticket. Salinas PD took him back into custody.
Listening in on a scanner can reveal the "details".

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Being able to stay informed about onboard incidents like this is why we always have a scanner with us when we travel on Amtrak.

Almost all the time when people are put off at non station stops, they will be put into the hands of law enforcement. That doesn't mean they'll necessarily be arrested or even detained. It is probably a liability thing, at least in part. Some are arrested, but just because they are put in the hands of cops does not mean they are going to jail.

Eric in East County said:

Being able to stay informed about onboard incidents like this is why we always have a scanner with us when we travel on Amtrak.

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One of the truly great joys of scanners