Bomb threat delayed train & I'll miss connection. What do I do

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Saber Mom

Saber Mom

Train Attendant
Joined
Jan 24, 2015
Messages
46
Hello everyone!

I'm on the SWC #4 and I was just told that my train is delayed by 4-5 hours. I need to transfer to the Pere Marquette at 4:55, but there's no way that's happening.

The conductor told me to call customer service, but they both slammed the conductor for telling me to do that (I called twice). Amtrak told me to call Unon station, but didn't have a number and I can't find one online.

I need to know or have some sort of an idea of when I'll be home. Of course, my 11 year old son is throwing up and missing school and my husband had to stay home. He's a doctor, so this messes up not only his day, but his patients as well. My husband needs to know right away if he needs to tell his staff to start cancelling tomorrow because my son will still be sick. Probably.

So.... any of you veterans got any ideas of what I can or should do? I'm in Kansas City right now. Thank you.
 
Excuse my spelling. My phone won't let me correct. UNION station is what I meant to type. :)
 
Just a stab in the dark. Call Customer Service again and ask for a supervisor.
 
The fastest way for you to get to Dearborn is to get off the train in Kansas City MO, get to the airport and fly home. United 1042 departs at 2:35pm. After a 1½ hour layover in Chicago United 1474 will get to Dearborn at 8:10pm.

Staying on the train means your arrival at home will be delayed 24 hours. Maybe someone else has a better idea.
 
Sorry, should have said Grand Rapids. But United 1042 @ 2:35pm is still OK, but it's United 1485 that'll get you to Grand Rapids @ 7:15pm.

And if you're still on the train heading for Chicago seems like your best bet would be to continue on to Chicago, get to O'Hare and then fly.
 
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If you have a guaranteed connection then Amtrak will either put you up for the night in Chicago (which won't do you any good for your problem) or they could charter a bus or van to get you to your destination. Hours late, but will get you home. Seems like customer service should be up on what they plan to do.
 
KEEP BUGGING CUSTOMER SERVICE!

TALK TO THE HIGHEST-RANKING PERSON YOU CAN FIND!

If they haven't figured out an acceptable solution by the time you get to "Unon" station, demand to talk to the highest-ranking person there.

(This is why they never should have taken the OBS Chiefs off the trains.)

Tom

P.S. You're welcome to call it Onion Station if you wish. :giggle: The name of Chicago is said to come from an old Native American expression meaning "A good place to grow onions."
 
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Thank you all. We have new conductors that just boarded, so I'm sure I'll find out more.
 
The same situation happened to us last year. We had to go to customer service at Union Station. Amtrak had a shuttle van ready to take 6 of us. First stop Holland, then on to Grand Rapids.

We were back in GR in less that 2 1/2 hours from leaving Chicago.
 
Gotta love a system that requires you to actually miss your connection before they'll begin to do anything about it. That's not how it used to work. The next time you get complaints for trying to be proactive consider taking some names and reporting them after you get home. Then again you've already been through enough. No need to take on any more responsibility for this mess.
 
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We were over 8 hours late coming into CUS from Albuquerque 2 year ago. We were told to all go to Customer Service in the station. We had only a small group from West MI, only 3 of us.

Amtrak had a group of white shuttle buses ready for many people. Within a half hour the 3 of us were on our way, I believe we left Chicago after midnight. The driver drove about 90 the entire way back to Grand Rapids. I think we pulled into the train depot about 3 AM. We tipped him our last $20 for getting us home so quick.
 
They usually arrange a van for late arrivals heading to Michigan, provided you aren't so late (say, 3:00 a.m.) that it warrants an overnight stay in Chicago.
 
Devil's Advocate said:
Gotta love a system that requires you to actually miss your connection before they'll begin to do anything about it. That's not how it used to work. The next time you get complaints for trying to be proactive consider taking some names and reporting them after you get home. Then again you've already been through enough. No need to take on any more responsibility for this mess.
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Agreed that it's a terrible way of handling it. Even something as simple as Amtrak saying "we'll provide ground transportation to your destination when you arrive, when arriving go to XYZ desk for more information" or "we'll be putting you on tomorrow's train and giving you a hotel room for the night" would be more helpful than "I don't know."

When my Southwest Airlines flight was cancelled last month, they sent me an email immediately and I could call in and get it changed before I ever went to the airport. (No vouchers were provided for the delay thanks to "weather," and they weren't able to check my bags at the original time, but whatever. At least I could prepare in advance.)
 
Devil's Advocate said:
Gotta love a system that requires you to actually miss your connection before they'll begin to do anything about it. That's not how it used to work. The next time you get complaints for trying to be proactive consider taking some names and reporting them after you get home. Then again you've already been through enough. No need to take on any more responsibility for this mess.
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It's been my experience that Chicago's customer service, or whoever handles misconnects, does an excellent job, whether putting you up overnight or into a van. It sounds like what we have is the old communications problem. It could have been the conductor telling the passenger to call customer service without specifying Chicago or Amtrak, the Chicago people not informing Amtrak customer service or the conductor of the status, or Amtrak customer service telling the passenger to call Union Station, or the customer's panic mode confusing Amtrak's customer service rep.

Or more likely someone didn't follow procedure. Again, it's my experience that once higher level Amtrak personnel make the decision what to do, Chicago implements it and informs the conductor, who then calms the passengers by telling them what will happen and to go immediately to customer service in Union Station (unless a cross platform transfer is called for).
 
Devil said:
Gotta love a system that requires you to actually miss your connection before they'll begin to do anything about it. That's not how it used to work. The next time you get complaints for trying to be proactive consider taking some names and reporting them after you get home. Then again you've already been through enough. No need to take on any more responsibility for this mess.
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Yeah. In fact, I've had pretty good experiences at Chicago Union. I got the "no help at all, no information" result at NY. I ended up reporting the supervisor at NY Penn, because he wasn't doing his job. They had NOTHING ready when I got to NY Penn and they told me NOTHING. For an HOUR.
 
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When and where was this bomb threat that delayed the SWC so long? I haven't heard anything about a bomb threat on Amtrak?
 
The mynewsla item says southbound no. 4. Interesting that no. 4 is eastbound. That happened in California. That's not very enlightening. Saber Mom's consist got stopped in Kansas. It looks like the bogus call just said the supposed bomb was on the SW Chief, making it necessary for Amtrak to stop and inspect every enroute consist. These jokers need a new hobby.

Tom
 
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So, Saber Mom, what happened? Did you get home OK? Or are you still in Chicago? Your trip was quite an adventure.
 
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