SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — Dozens of people could be seen milling about Amtrak Auto Train’s Sanford parking lot Monday, taking refuge from the sun while trying to figure out when they’d be able to leave.
The passengers had loaded onto the train at approximately 2:30 p.m. Sunday and had taken off for Virginia. Around 9 p.m., the train stopped – and an hour later began rolling back to Sanford, they said.
Fires in northeast Florida closed down the tracks Amtrak’s trains run on, preventing the train from getting through. Monday’s Auto Train was canceled. A passenger train en route from Miami stopped north of DeLand.
Passengers said Amtrak was offering refunds and they weren’t upset about the trip cancellation.
The delay after their return was something else.
“Two o’clock this morning or four o’clock this morning, whatever time it was that we finally rolled in, they did nothing,” Michael O’Neil said. “All these cars were going somewhere else. They didn’t tell us anything.”
The Auto Train could be seen rolling back and forth, stopping at the Sunrail station up the tracks for a brief time before returning to the Amtrak rail yard.
“I’m really tired, and I’m just waiting for something to happen,” Joan Daley said.
Passengers said they’d likely drive the 16 hours up to Virginia, where the Auto Train stops. They said they were told the train was booked for the next two weeks.
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