SEATTLE — Amtrak service between Seattle and Portland is suspended through Tuesday after a landslide south of Kelso, Washington.
Service was expected to resume Sunday night, but a social media post from the company shared that "all rail service between Seattle (SEA) and Portland (PDX) will remain suspended until 10:45 AM PT, Tuesday 1/23."
Grace Henneford spent hours on an Amtrak train over the weekend. She planned to be in Portland by 9 p.m. on Friday. By 9 p.m., Henneford said she knew something was wrong.
"We ended up stopping and we discovered there's a landslide in Felida, Washington, right in between the Kelso and Vancouver stations," Henneford said.
After an hour passed, Amtrak determined the train had to turn back. Henneford said the company assured passengers there would be buses in Kelso.
"Most of us weren't really worried," Henneford said. "Okay, we'll add a few hours to our arrival time, that's about it. We were halfway to Kelso when we got a text message from Amtrak saying your train line has been terminated. We cannot secure buses. You will be returned back to your original location."
Henneford said Amtrak's text message left people scrambling.
"It was a really odd situation because no one really coordinated with us about hotel options, cars waiting for us," Henneford said. "We got stuck in Kelso for five hours because the crew had been working so long that they needed to turn over to a new staff."
Through it all, Henneford took initiative and talked to different passengers, figuring out who was heading in the same direction, and linking them up to make $130 Uber rides more affordable. Passengers eventually got back to where they started after waiting for hours. Some of that time was spent out in the cold according to Henneford. She hopes Amtrak finds a way to make it up to its passengers.
"I just wish they would have maybe shown they cared more about their passengers and what happened to us," Henneford said. "It didn't seem they were communicating with the staff either because we told them the terminated train.
Henneford wanted to be clear: the train staff was exceptional. Her qualms are with the company which, according to her, has not reached out about refunds or travel vouchers.
"The conductors and staff that really saved the situation were named Joshua H., in the food car, AJ, Jason, Pat, Dave, Doug, and Joshua on the Casade 509 and 511," Henneford said.
KING 5 contacted Amtrak to ask about Henneford's concerns and for an update on the situation. We received the following response.
Customers with reservations on trains that are being modified will typically be accommodated on trains with similar departure times or another day. Amtrak will waive additional charges for customers looking to change their reservation during the modified schedule by calling our reservation center at 1-800-USA-RAIL. Click here for our full refund and cancellation policy.
The most up-to-date train status is available on Amtrak.com and in the free mobile app. Our notification service alerts customers via push notification, email, and/or text with updates throughout their journey as information becomes available.
Follow us on X/Twitter for real-time service information:
- @AmtrakNECAlerts for service information in the Northeast Corridor (Acela, Northeast Regional and other corridor services).
- @AmtrakAlerts for service information outside the Northeast Corridor.
- Subscribe at Amtrak.com/DelayAlerts to receive automated email or text message notifications if Amtrak trains are behind schedule at specific stations.