Passengers flee train during 19-hour ride from Michigan to Chicago

Passengers stuck on an Amtrak train say there was no electricity, heat, bathrooms or food during a roughly 19-hour journey from Pontiac to Chicago.

Many of them fled the train before it even reached its destination.

Wolverine Train 351 first left Michigan around 6 a.m. Friday for the scheduled 5½ hour trek to Chicago. It didn’t arrive until after midnight Central Standard Time.

“There was just delay after delay,” said Michael Bambery, 48, who boarded the train in Ann Arbor around 7:15 a.m., jumped off the stopped train near Gary, Indiana, paid $200 for an Uber and got to his hotel 16 hours later said.

The train first stopped about 19 miles west of Ann Arbor due to a power issue with the engine, according to Amtrak Senior Public Relations Manager Jason Abrams. It was then coupled with Wolverine 353, another train that left Pontiac around 8:50 a.m., to be pulled to Chicago.

Katie Kobiljak, 23, boarded in Dearborn and woke up two hours later when the train was at a “complete dead stop.” For seven hours, Kobiljak said there was a lot of “starting and stopping” as engineers tried to connect the two trains.

“Right off the bat when our engine when out, that also killed our electricity. So, we didn’t have charge and the bathrooms didn’t flush. You could use the bathroom, but it was like using a porta potty and that’s not great,” she said.

Just east of the Jackson stop, the train hit the brakes again for a medical emergency. Passengers said it smelled like burnt rubber while the train sat for another two hours without power.

“That was everybody’s breaking point,” Kobiljak said.

Abrams said the passenger who called for medical help stayed on board and the train continued west.

Once getting to Jackson, Kobiljak deboarded.

“I didn’t get off the train until 3:30 p.m. and I got off in Jackson. So, I was on the train for nine hours and only made it like halfway through the state,” she said.

Kobiljak’s family picked her up and drove her to Kalamazoo for the night. They planned to drive the rest of the way Saturday so Kobiljak could run the Chicago Marathon on Sunday.

But it got worse for many who stayed on board.

Bambery said the “real problem” started when the train stopped abruptly just east of Chicago near Gary, Indiana. Passengers were told the crew needed to be swapped out, but the train didn’t seem to stop at an actual station.

“No heat, no electricity and at this point it’s dark, so no lights,” he said. “They were cracking glowsticks to give us light. The toilets are overflowing because you cannot flush these toilets without electricity, so it smells awful. It’s really cold and there’s just a skeleton crew on board.”

Abrams said the trains stopped because of a brake issue, which was fixed, but got delayed again due to battery problems. But passengers said they didn’t get updates from Amtrak on what was going on during this delay.

The train parked in the middle of live tracks leaving people stranded in the dark with unsanitary conditions, multiple passengers said. But a group of people still opened the doors to jump out of the car.

“We’re feeling like we can’t stay on this train anymore. We’re getting no information from Amtrak. Again, we’re cold, hungry, people need to use the bathroom. It smells awful. And a percentage of people are having acute anxiety symptoms and screaming,” he said.

A couple dozen people crossed the tracks to an expressway where they called for rideshares to take them into the city. Bambery said “all of which was unsafe” but people felt like they needed to get off the train.

“Due to the lateness of the combo train, some passengers elected to safely detrain in East Chicago and find alternate transportation,” Abrams said.

The Bamberys finally got to their hotel at 11 p.m., ate food and went to bed.

Saturday, Bambery’s wife and daughter planned to go the Harry Styles concert while Bambery was going to take his son to the Northwestern-Wisconsin football game. He said they’re feeling “not good” about taking Amtrak back to Michigan on Sunday.

Both trains eventually arrived at Chicago Union Station just after midnight Saturday. According to Abrams, this was nearly a seven-hour delay for Wolverine 351 and less than a four-hour delay for Wolverine 353.

Amtrak did apologize to passengers and offered transportation vouchers, according to a screenshot of an email sent to MLive.

“Please accept our most sincerest apologies that your trip on train 351 on October 7, 2022 was severely delayed. Despite our best efforts, there are times when circumstances arise that are out of our control.”

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