Rail passenger advocates upset at Amtrak
(CBS DETROIT) - It was a trip several hundred passengers wouldn't soon forget.
They had no water, power, or access to bathrooms -- for about 19 hours -- onboard an Amtrak train.
"Something has to be done. This is not the way rail transportation is supposed to happen," Dana Thomas, who boarded an Amtrak train Friday morning in Dearborn with her family for a 10-day trip.
Its final destination was Chicago, but the troubles began outside of Ann Arbor.
"The train glided to a stop. And it was complete silence," Thomas said.
Without power, the heat quit working, and toilets wouldn't flush.
"There was nothing that they could do on the track to fix that train. Rather than dealing with us as people, as humans, they chose to sacrifice us for cost savings," Thomas said.
Eventually, another train pulled the disabled one to Jackson.
Nine hours into what should have been about a five-hour trip Katie Koblijack who was on her way to the Chicago Marathon, got off.
"There were two incidents where our brakes started to malfunction, and the entire car smell like smelled like burnt rubber," Kobiljak said.
Thomas stayed, but things didn't get better.
Around sunset, the train stopped again in Gary, Indiana, where more passengers bailed across a field, waiting for car rides next to the freeway.
The train arrived in Chicago around midnight Saturday.
"What is the length of time that we can sit broken before alternative actions must be must happen?" Thomas wondered.
According to the Rail Passengers Association, there isn't any law requiring compensation for service disruptions, nor any mandate for minimum compensation levels in the event of a disruption.
The group advocates for a Passengers' Bill of Rights similar to those who fly.
"This is an absolute disaster, and this is, unfortunately, becoming more common with Amtrak they have cut all of their expenses to the bone to chase profitability," John Guidinger, chair of the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers, said.
Amtrak has offered a refund or a credit to the affected passengers.
"I have that voucher. I'm probably not in a rush to use it," Kobiljak said.
