Travel nightmare as Amtrak outage leaves commuters stranded

Amtrak is experiencing a major system outage, affecting its booking services and leaving travelers stranded.

The nationwide passenger railway network, which spans more than 750 miles coast to coast, began encountering issues around 12 p.m. ET.

Commuters reported being unable to purchase tickets through the Amtrak app or website, causing delays and uncertainty for those planning to travel.

App users are seeing alerts that say: 'Let's try again. 'We are temporarily unable to process your request.' 

'Been down for an hour so far. I can't book new tickets, change existing reservations, or cancel for a refund,' a frustrated traveler posted on X. 

Amtrak told passengers on social media that its systems are currently down due to an ongoing update, which is expected to take about another hour to complete. 

However, the railway system did not make an official announcement before cutting services.

'What a mess! Who updates their booking systems in the middle of the day?' another X user shared.

Downdetector, a site that monitors online outages, shows disruptions from Washington DC to Boston, Massachusetts.

Approximately 45 percent of the issue reports sent to Downdetector cited problems with bookings. 

Another 33 percent cited the website, and 24 percent are having issues with the app. 

Amtrak serves an average of approximately 87,000 passengers daily and more than 32 million total annually.