Amtrak trains delayed by cold, snowstorms

CHICAGO (AP) — On one of the biggest travel days of the year, hundreds of Amtrak passengers bound for holiday destinations hunkered down in waiting rooms — some for nearly 24 hours — as snowstorms and Arctic cold delayed their trains and disrupted other Christmas traffic.

Don and Barbara Seifert of Prophetstown, Ill., spent a sleepless, frustration-filled night at Chicago’s Union Station with hundreds of angry customers.

After waiting 12 hours for their New York-bound train to depart, their breath visible in the frigid indoor air, the Seiferts finally abandoned plans to visit their son and his family for the holidays.

“It’s spoiled our Christmas, sure,” 73-year-old Don Seifert said Tuesday before he and his wife headed back to their western Illinois home.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said crews in some cities headed out with picks and shovels to clear snow-packed track switches; elsewhere, trains were held back to give lavatory pipes time to thaw.

Each train delay caused a ripple effect, with other trains and their crews at other points having to wait or readjust, he added.

“A combination of all those things is what presented this situation — about which we’re very regretful,” Magliari said.

Around 600 passengers in Chicago waited for up to 22 hours before finally boarding their delayed trains — the Lake Shore Limited, which was bound for New York, and the Seattle- and Portland, Ore.-bound Empire Builder.

Meanwhile, freezing rain was making driving hazardous Tuesday across parts of the nation’s midsection, including Kansas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Arkansas. The Chicago Department of Aviation said more than 400 flights were canceled at O’Hare International Airport because of the weather, and many others were delayed.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the Pacific Northwest’s largest, had been jammed with thousands of stranded travelers Sunday night and Monday morning. But most air service was restored Monday, and the number of people sleeping in the terminal early Tuesday was down to “a hundred, if that,” said Perry Cooper, an airport spokesman.