Amtrak's computers are whacky today (10/5/14)

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Disaster at NYP this afternoon. Unable to print tickets.

Luckily ticketing came back up around 3:20ish.

I'm on 2254.
 
As of 5 PM ET on Sunday, the entire Amtrak website is still down. Not the way to get the fiscal year off to a good start. However, the Amtrak blog and Great American Stations web sites are still up, so those must be hosted separate from the main website.
 
This afternoon about 3 the Quik Trak kiosks went up and the crews at PHL got their computers back to sell tix. At that time the message on the web site changed. I see the web site ticketing is the last to come up.
 
The story was big enough to make the WNBC-NY 6 News, though it was nothing more than a rehash of the Amtrak release supplemented with some B-Roll.
 
Ironically, of all days, my sister, who never takes trains; needed to make a last minute trip from Upstate NY to NYC, and just called me (since she knows I prefer Amtrak) to complain about the website being down.

She was able to do what she needed do by calling them, but still for me, this was quite ironic.
 
Well, I just got back home and found this in my inbox, delivered about half an hour after I arrived at PHL:

We understand that you are planning to travel on Amtrak today. We are currently experiencing a system outage which means you will not be able to retrieve your travel document on Amtrak.com or on your mobile device. This is only an issue with the reservation system and does not impact the operation of the trains.

There are several options for how you may print your travel document for your travel. If you selected to receive your travel document via email when you purchased, we recommend that you retrieve that email and print your travel document before arriving at the station. You are also able to print your travel document at the Quik-Trak kiosks or by visiting a station agent when you arrive at the station. If for some reason you are unable to print your travel document, please board your train as scheduled. Our conductors are aware of the system outage and will accommodate you.

We apologize for any inconvenience.”
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Only about 6 hours late. Now that's customer service!
 
2230 EST and the website is completely off the air. Not even Trackatrain available. I'm really curious how the trains are doing. Any reports by riders or folks along the tracks (29,30,48,49, 7,8,50) much appreciated. Also, is it clear at all what has caused the website outage? Did servers crash from old age? Was it caused by people overtaxing the system trying to deal with late-running trains? Or is this "just" the long-feared exit strategy for a very old reservation system?

Best wishes to all
 
WellTrained said:
2230 EST and the website is completely off the air. Not even Trackatrain available. I'm really curious how the trains are doing. Any reports by riders or folks along the tracks (29,30,48,49, 7,8,50) much appreciated. Also, is it clear at all what has caused the website outage? Did servers crash from old age? Was it caused by people overtaxing the system trying to deal with late-running trains? Or is this "just" the long-feared exit strategy for a very old reservation system?

Best wishes to all
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You did not ask about 21, but it is 2 hours down leaving STL now.
 
Thanks Penny and wonder how Betty is doing across NY on tlhe Late Shore???

Also #21/#421 usually loses time between STL and LRK in the Bermuda Triangle in Mo and Ark during the Night, as well as the one between FTW and TPL, so I expect to catch #21/#421 Late in TPL tomorrow!!

Any news on what's going on in the IT Dept @ Amtrak?????
 
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Looks like amtrak.com is back up as of 8:32pm PT. Track-A-Train is eerily empty, and ticketing seems not to be responding.

Edit 8:36pm PT: My Account section of ticketing is working, although it's slow.

Edit 8:40pm PT: Track-A-Train is showing trains, although the "detailed status" does not appear to be showing.
 
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49 is still about 10 mins down, I think. Hey, I'm trying to get some sleep here on coach, so don't blame me if I'm wrong.
 
Amtrak.com is working for me @ 10.30pm CDT but Status Maps has yesterdays info/ Train Status in Amtrak.com is working now as are test bookings so perhaps by morning everything will be back to semi- normal, in other words a Mess!!! Sigh

!
 
The website is up and it appears that reservations is working. The Amtrak track-a-train appears to be working as well. Boy, is #48(10/4) late. Amtrak Status maps is now catching up with the current locations of the trains still enroute.

The website and reservation system was down for almost an entire day. That deserves a public explanation of what went wrong, but I would be surprised to see Amtrak state anything beyond generic technical difficulties or server failure.
 
Just checked my AGR & my trip which originated on 10/5 shows for TQPs & points & bonus points (except the last leg which was yesterday, so expect it to show in a day or two).
 
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