Stuck Amtrak Train That Stranded 183 Passengers Finally Moves

PORTLAND, OR – Nearly 200 people stranded on an Amtrak train since Sunday night are finally off of the train. The train – Train 11 of the Amtrak Coast Starlight – was traveling the route from Seattle to Los Angeles when it hit a tree on the tracks.

It happened around 6:20 on Sunday night traveling by Oakridge, south of Eugene in Lane County, OR, when it the tree, which had been felled by a winter storm.

Around 7:20 on Tuesday morning, a locomotive from Union Pacific Railroad arrived to rescue the train and 183 passengers on board. The train had left Seattle around 9:45 on Sunday morning.

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The tracks where it happened are operated by Union Pacific. They worked with Amtrak to get the tree cleared and the train moving again.

Instead of continuing south, though, the locomotive brought the train back to the station in Eugene. From there, they made it to Portland where, to add insult to injury, they had to wait a few more hours.

A fire on the Columbia River Crossing forced another delay. It wasn't until around 5:30 in the afternoon, that the train was finally headed back up to Seattle.

Normally, Amtrak would have removed the passengers from the train when it became stuck on the tracks and move them to safety by bus or other means. They were unable to do that in this case because of dangerous weather conditions.

Amtrak says that they will work with passengers to get them to where they need to be by other means of transportation.

The incident has stopped Amtrak service south of Eugene until sometime Thursday, according to Amtrak..