Once in the mid-1990's, the southbound Auto Train was seriously delayed because of a Hurricane (I don't remember which one --- it may have been Hugo or Danny or another one). It was necessary for us to serve a dinner meal to a full train of passengers on day 2 of the trip, in spite of the fact that on the first evening we had used up all the supplies intended for southbound dinner service. Our Train Manager called up the Savannah GA Chamber of Commerce to find out who could cater dinner for 500 passengers on short notice. Evidently, no one establishment could do it, but several different restaurants pooled their resources and came up with a staggering variety of outstanding food for us to serve. When the train got to Savannah, we commenced to unload this smorgasbord from a UPS truck and distribute it between the coach diner and the sleeper diner. Somebody at the C of C had told the news media, so reporters were on the platform, hoping to interview starving, angry passengers. Some passengers opened vestibule windows & talked to them (the crew was busy unloading the food & couldn't prevent this safety violation). The only story the Media got was that of happy, content passengers who were complimentary of the crew that was working in their behalf. NOBODY complained about the food, or the crew. When we got to Sanford, the station personnel expected to be deluged by angry people demanding refunds, but it simply didn't happen. Of course, Amtrak paid for the catering. I don't know how much it cost, but it was certainly worth it in terms of repeat ridership.
And if nobody ever thought to thank the restaurateurs of Savannah, I'd now like to publicly say THANK YOU!
In early April 1988 the Sunset Limited, with more than 325 crew and passengers, was stranded in Sanderson, TX for more than 10 hours because of a freight train derailment.
In response to Amtrak's request for help, the locals pulled together an old fashion west Texas barbecue for the stranded passengers and crew. Amtrak paid for the barbecue, but anyone familiar with Sanderson knows that it took a big effort on the part of the locals to come up with the chow. In addition, according to the news reports, the locals escorted some of the young people on the train to the local park for entertainment.
At the time, according to the LA Times, Sanderson had a population of approximately 1,200 people. Today the population is approximately 830 people. Sanderson is not the most isolated community in west Texas. But it is close.
Correction no 2 with good glasses, issue of 18 September, and it was 53 planes.
Correction, the issue was that of Friday, 13 September, not 10 September. Apologies
A featured story in 10 Sep. '13 Jerusalem Post discussed the wonderful hospitalitiy of the people of Gander, Newfoundland, as their town withi a population of 10400 peole received 10500 stranded passengers and crew from 52 temporarily grounded airplanes that could not complete their trans-Atlantic flights to the USA on 11 Sep. '01. Crews were accomodated in hotels, able-bodied passengers in temporary dorms set up in school gymnasia, bowing alies, meeting halls, etc, and couples with young children, pregnant mothers, elderly, and handicapped accomodated in private homes. Tours were organized, highschool students became guides, food including diatary requirements was provided. etc.
Can other readers report on similar hospitalitiy related to passenger train emergencies?
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