Amtrak fail: Commuters locked out of station
NOT THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE DRAWER: Commuters travelling from Lancaster, PA to their jobs in Philadelphia and NYC feared not being able to get to work on time when they arrived at the station only to find themselves locked out, because a “scheduling error” – Amtrak’s explanation – left the station unmanned, LancasterOnline reports:
Around 5:15 a.m., a growing crowd of commuters started banging on the front doors and windows of the station when they discovered it was locked. …
The commuters signaled construction workers who were inside the station. The workers did not have keys to the front doors but they let the commuters in through a side entrance.
Once the commuters, numbering between 75 and 100, made their way upstairs to the darkened station, they found another roadblock.
The door leading from the station down to the train platform was locked, too, commuters said. …
[S]omeone began pushing against the door [which was padlocked with a metal bar]. Others helped.
"They put enough pressure on it – it wasn't heavy – then the bar got snapped off," said [Civia Katz, a Manheim Township resident headed to her job in Philadelphia]. "Everybody started pouring down to the platform." …
"Amtrak is running this like a Ma and Pa operation. They do nothing to increase the comfort of the person taking the train. They lock us out of the building. They are operating it like a general store in the 1800s."
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