Wildfires halt Amtrak train, leaving Savannah passenger stranded for hours

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Passengers aboard an Amtrak train in Florida say their trip turned into hours of waiting and uncertainty after wildfires forced the route to shut down.

Savannah native Meg Pace said she and her husband were riding Amtrak Train 98 back home when the train came to a stop near DeLand, Florida, as wildfires in North Florida halted rail traffic.

“It’s a lot of smoke… that really is a lot of black smoke,” Pace said.

Pace said the delay stretched on and passengers grew frustrated by what she described as a lack of updates.

“There just wasn’t any information flowing,” she said. “No one knew how long we were going to be there.”

Another passenger, Ephraim Maldonado, called the situation “a nightmare after a certain point,” and said basic needs became a concern as the hours passed.

“There’s no food now, we can’t use the bathroom,” Maldonado said.

Pace said some passengers needed medical help as the delay dragged on.

“Now that we’ve been on the train for almost 24 hours, people were running out of medications, so they were calling 911. We had some fire and rescue and medics come on board to help some people.

Maldonado said the train was only a few miles from the DeLand station, but passengers still could not move forward.

Maldonado said he and his brother planned to exit the train and walked until they could get an Uber, eventually making it back to New York after passengers were instructed not to leave the train.

Pace said she stayed onboard until a new engineer arrived and the train reversed back to DeLand, where she and her husband booked a flight back to Savannah.

Amtrak said it is working closely with host railroad partner CSX to monitor residual wildfire activity near the Clay–Putnam County line in Florida. Amtrak said normal service has resumed except for the following adjustments in effect Tuesday, April 21: the Silver Meteor Train 97 is canceled and the Floridian Train 41 is canceled.

WTOC has reached out to Amtrak to confirm passenger claims regarding food, restroom access and refunds, and is awaiting a response.

In a statement, Amtrak did say: “Amtrak appreciates our customers’ patience as we work to ensure safe and reliable service during these conditions.”