Amtrak’s website and app became unavailable for ticket reservations Friday evening, November 13, as travelers reported error messages when trying to book. Reports to DownDetector rose shortly before 5 p.m., then surged again just before 6 p.m. The disruption affected booking rather than train operations: Amtrak said its service was running normally, while noting increased demand across its network. The company did not provide a detailed explanation of the technical problem. In a response on social media, it linked the booking difficulties to a system-wide update; its communications director emphasized elevated travel demand. Amtrak’s customer support line was also overwhelmed, with callers hearing an automated message that staff could not take calls because of unusually high call volume.
The booking outage coincided with a nationwide FAA ground stop, which left thousands of air travelers scrambling to make alternate plans and may have added pressure to rail reservations. The FAA said the ground stop resulted from a temporary telecommunications outage. It was the first nationwide stop since January 2023 and only the second since the September 11 attacks. The timing brought attention to the added strain on travel systems when air service is disrupted, although no direct connection was established between the FAA outage and Amtrak’s booking failure. The key distinction for travelers was that trains continued to operate normally even while new ticket purchases and reservations were difficult or impossible.
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