Photo: WFIR/Ian Price
A lot of people taking the new afternoon Amtrak train out of Roanoke Tuesday ended up spending the whole whole night on it. The rail service reports storms sent trees across the tracks north of Charlottesville, resulting in a delay of more than seven hours. This was just the second day of service for the train; it was due to arrive in Washington around 10:00 last night, but Amtrak reports it pulled into Union Station around 6:15 this morning.
The train was due to arrive at Culpeper at 7:50 pm, but midway through the night, it remained at a standstill: FROM AMTRAK TWITTER 2:50 am — Train 66 remains stopped south of Culpeper (CLP) due to downed trees on the tracks & severe weather conditions in the area. Crews are still actively working to clear the tracks.
The tracks were cleared a short time later, and Train 66 was then allowed to resume its run — but not before many passengers unexpectedly spent the night in their seats instead of a bed. As scheduled, Train 66 actually runs overnight between Washington and Boston, but there is no sleeper service at any point on it.
