Amtrak Customers Frustrated After Outage Halts Online, Kiosk Ticket Sales
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A network outage has snarled Amtrak's online ticket reservation system as well as its self-serve kiosks, causing frustration for weekend travelers.
Barbara, who was trying to get back to Vermont from Penn Station on Sunday, told 1010 WINS' Roger Stern that Amtrak's doing better at alerting the media than it is keeping passengers informed about what is happening.
"I guess all of their systems are down today, so very convenient. And they haven't really told us anything, so the lines are getting really long and people are getting really irritated," she said.
Amtrak released a statement alerting passengers to the program outage.
"We are currently experiencing a network outage affecting our ticketing system. For passengers traveling today, they are to purchase their tickets at the station from an agent on duty," the statement said. "If passengers have already purchased their tickets, they can still board the train even if they cannot access their
eTicket. We apologize for the inconvenience to our passengers."
Amtrak said customers should allow extra time to buy a ticket from an agent at the station.
That's something Lori Morris, of East Setauket, didn't know before she tried to take an Amtrak train from Penn Station to Washington. She said she had to wait a half an hour online to get a ticket from an agent.
"Well I tried to make a reservation on the train coming in. They said the system was down or something. So I figured I would just get my ticket from the machine, then all the machines were out. That's when I found out," she said.
The railroad also tweeted to customers following the outage.
We are currently experiencing a network outage. If you are traveling today, please purchase your ticket at the station. We apologize.
— Amtrak (@Amtrak) October 5, 2014
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