My family's Florida vacation plans called for riding Amtrak train #97, The Silver Meteor, from Kissimmee to West Palm Beach, FL. All of Amtrak's Silver Service trains were running very late yesterday due to weather problems up the line. #97 arrived in Kissimmee at about 3:30 PM, two hours late, behind AMTK 200 (Which I will refer to as AMTK 200:2). We were supposed to arrive in W. Palm Beach at 7:30 PM (2.5 hours behind), but just FIVE Minutes out of the station, we stopped. There is a commuter railroad down here, called Tri-Rail, that runs between Miami and West Palm....Well, one of their trains hit a Tresspasser near the West Palm station, and killed him. We had to sit in the same spot for FOUR HOURS while CSI, the Police/Medics, and the Coroners office investigated the incident with Tri-rail. It took a lot longer than expected because the remains of the person who got hit were imbedded into the Tri-rail locomotive
(Close as I can get to a Vomiting icon). During this time, Amtrak train #91, the Silver Star, which was even more behind schedule, pulled up right behind us. About 30 minutes before we finally got into the station, they hooked up #91 to the rear of our train, so they could get both trains into Miami at the same time, and cut time more. We got into W. Palm at Midnight....Over six hours behind.
I'll add more details later.
