Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018 | 1 a.m.
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Three cars on an Amtrak train carrying more than 300 people from Miami to New York derailed in snowy Savannah, Georgia, but no injuries were reported, Amtrak said early Thursday.
Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams said the Silver Meteor train No. 98 was backing slowly into the Savannah station about 10 p.m. Wednesday when two sleeper cars and a baggage car derailed.
"All three cars — a baggage car and two sleeper cars — are fully upright," Abrams said in an email early Thursday to The Associated Press.
He said there were 311 passengers on board, in addition to crew, but he had no reports of anyone hurt.
Abrams said the main train was expected to continue its journey north though some of the sleeping car passengers had to be transferred to a different train.
He didn't say what caused the three-car derailment, and the statement also gave no indication whether a brutal winter storm that coated Savannah with a rare snowfall Wednesday was any factor.
The National Weather Service said Savannah's first measurable snowfall since February 2010 was recorded Wednesday in the normally balmy Southern City at 1.2 inches (3 centimeters). It was the first snow in Savannah that exceeded an inch (2.5 centimeters) in 28 years.
Passenger Joel Potischman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he boarded the train early in the day in Delray Beach, Fla., to head home to Brooklyn, New York. He said the train was making its way amid the winter storm weather to Savannah at the time.
Mike Zevon, another passenger, told the newspaper that it was the last three cars derailed.
Abrams' statement didn't elaborate on the affected cars or how many cars were in the formation.
