Amtrak passengers traveling in and out of Boston's South Station Wednesday expressed sympathy for the families of riders killed or injured in Tuesday night's multi-car derailment in Philadelphia.
"I just feel for the victims and the people who are injured," said Andrew DeVitre, who was taking the train from Boston to New York City Wednesday. "That's what I feel for."
John and Rhiannon Peck, from north of London, told New England Cable News they planned to celebrate son Andrew's graduation from the Berklee College of Music with a train trip from Boston to Washington, D.C. But the derailment has rail traffic around Philadelphia blocked, so there was no train travel from the north to D.C. for the Pecks on Wednesday.
"We've rearranged our travel arrangements to go on the bus," John Peck explained. "Which is now about a 10-hour journey instead of an 8-hour journey."
After a wait to leave, the Pecks were expecting the bus trip would get them to the nation's capital very late Wednesday night, five hours after the train would have.
"A little bit of an inconvenience, but not too bad," Rhiannon Peck said. "It's just been a longer day. A much longer day."
The family was not complaining. Instead, their minds were on the riders killed or injured in the train wreck.
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"When you think of the families that have lost lives... I don't mind sitting in a bus station for a couple of hours," Andrew Peck said.
Linda Heywood, a college professor returning to Boston from a conference in New York City, told necn she experienced only very mild delays in her travel. "And they said they were going slow because they were checking the lines--the rail lines," Heywood added. "I guess to make sure that everything is ok."
Tom Scorsolini, a frequent train traveler, said he worried about delays or service interruptions getting from Boston to his home in New Jersey. Scorsolini also said he had worries about the unknown: what caused the derailment? Was it operator error? Equipment failure? Or something else?
"You normally think it's safe," Scorsolini said. "But look what happened. Just before I'm ready to go home and this happens. And it makes you think."
Scorsolini said as a frequent Amtrak rider, he will be watching for the findings of the investigation into what went wrong. That study could take weeks or even months.
In the age of social media, Amtrak passengers were taking to Twitter Wednesday to ask the transportation company questions about routes and service interruptions. It appeared to necn that Amtrak was responding to customer questions quickly.
Passenger Andrew DeVitre added he has faith in Amtrak, even after the derailment. "I think they're very good," he said. "And I think when something like this happens, I think it's actually not bad to travel because they'll be extra cautious."
