Longest Amtrak delays ever

In recent years, there have been Southbound Florida trains that were turned at Washington, D.C. and sent back to New York because bad weather was forecast on CSX.
Sometime in the 1970s, a Southbound Floridian from Chicago was stuck in snow somewhere in Indiana for more than a day and the passengers were finally evacuated when Amtrak gave up trying to get the train moving soon.

Well to update my return to CT. I arrived at New Haven on time yesterday. #4/17 arrived at Albuquerque 5 1/2hrs late making for a long drawn out wait of 6 1/2hrs at the station. It was 102 deg. outside and the station’s AC was not that good. With me being bored and frustrated that every time I looked at my Amtrak app that kept adding delay times I would occasionally take a walk outside for as long as I could stand the heat. I got to know the lead security guy there pretty well as he would go outside with me so he could have a smoke. His guys have been putting in a lot of overtime because of the late trains. They only work the station starting a few hours before the first train is to arrive or a greyhound bus was due.

We made up a lot of time overnight and were only 4hrs late when I awoke at Newton Kansas. Coming into KC we had to stop at the BNSF fuel racks at Argentine? yard before heading into the station and the crew change. We lost 2hrs mostly due to waiting our turn at the racks. At Galesburg they took Washington bound passenger and transferred them to a bus to catch #50 at Indianapolis like Mr. Wolf’s friend had to do. Being 6hrs late there was still a chance I could make the LSL in the nick of time (6 1/2hrs was the window). At about Mendota I got a call on my phone from an Amtrak rep. apologizing for the delays and said they were going to e-mail me a $500 voucher toward any future trip made in the next year. We made it to Chicago with 30min. to spare so I made my connection to 48. I couldn’t believe they did that when the only real hardship I endured was the long wait at Albuquerque which was nowhere near what the poor souls on 3/13 had to deal with. Anyway #48/18 arrived on the card at NYC the next morning.

Mr. Norman I was hoping to see you at MP18 but my roomette #2 was on the fireman’s side of the train. I was going to go up to the sightseer lounge to record passing by MP18 and get a glimpse of you trackside but they didn’t have the lounge open yet because they hadn’t scanned everyone’s tickets at that point. Sorry I missed you and hope you make it to your reunion at SKS this fall.

J.D. Lang wrote: ↑Mon Jun 21, 2021 2:28 pm We made up a lot of time overnight and were only 4hrs late when I awoke at Newton Kansas. Coming into KC we had to stop at the BNSF fuel racks at Argentine? yard before heading into the station and the crew change. We lost 2hrs mostly due to waiting our turn at the racks. At Galesburg they took Washington bound passenger and transferred them to a bus to catch #50 at Indianapolis like Mr. Wolf’s friend had to do. Being 6hrs late there was still a chance I could make the LSL in the nick of time (6 1/2hrs was the window). At about Mendota I got a call on my phone from an Amtrak rep. apologizing for the delays and said they were going to e-mail me a $500 voucher toward any future trip made in the next year. We made it to Chicago with 30min. to spare so I made my connection to 48. I couldn’t believe they did that when the only real hardship I endured was the long wait at Albuquerque which was nowhere near what the poor souls on 3/13 had to deal with. Anyway #48/18 arrived on the card at NYC the next morning.

Yeah, I think they guarantee a 3-hour transfer window. Nice for them to give you the voucher!

I don't recall the exact dates here. Sometime in the early 1970s ... due to weather, three (3) sections of #30 (National Limited) arrived at NYP within 2 hours of each other. These ranged from (approximate times) 12:55 PM (47 hours late), 1:55 PM (24 hours late), and 2:55 PM (1 hour late). #30 was never known for its timekeeping anyway!

My 1st wife and I arrived at DC Union Station on the Crescent the morning of the fire that flooded the B&P tunnel. A standing-room-only chartered city bus eventually got us to Baltimore and we reached BOS maybe 6 hours behind the ticketed schedule.

Another notable delay I experienced was my 2nd wife, daughter and I arrived at CHI the morning of the flash floods that filled up everything in the Aurora - Joliet quadrant - late '90s IIRC. Eventually a bus got us to Galesburg, but the route was complicated by I-55 being flooded too, and drivers who got confused by the detours. Only time I've seen a bus do a U-turn on the Interstate, but ours got there an hour before the rest.

But the longest was in 1979, when the Desert Wind made its connection with the San Francisco Zephyr, but ran Cheyenne - Lincoln on the UP because the BN line east of Denver was blocked by snow. The train got to Lincoln with little fuss, but then waited a long time for the bus dispatched from Cheyenne to Denver, then east to catch us at Lincoln. That got us a night at a tower Holiday Inn not far from Union Station, but arrival time and snow in Chicago limited dinner options.

AMTK 3 (9) (today’s SWC) is currently 9 hrs 11 mins late!

my latest Amtrak train was about three hours late, it was the Vermonter, and they were doing track work, so they had us get a bus at New Haven, but then of course there was traffic on the interstate, so we got to Springfield two hours late and lost some time. when I got off in vermont, we were running about three hours late. Not very fun

i’m going to embark on my first long-distance Amtrak train trip quite soon, hopefully I won’t get hit by any major delays!

My longest personally was about 6 hours. Coming back from Chicago I did the long-scenic route back to Connecticut....took the Cap Limited to DC before getting a regional back home. Something happened in the overnight hours so we were like 5.5 hours late into Pittsburgh, and once we got there they put me on a bus to DC to make the regional since I believe I took the last non Night Owl train that goes past NYP.

My mom's friend took the Zephyr from Chicago to Denver maybe 10 or so years ago and she arrived in Denver about 30 hours after the scheduled arrival time.