Nationwide, big travel day turns into big waiting day

CHICAGO — On one of the biggest travel days of the year, hundreds of Amtrak passengers bound for holiday destinations hunkered down in waiting rooms — some for nearly 24 hours — as snowstorms and cold delayed their trains and disrupted other Christmas traffic.

The Chicago Department of Aviation said more than 500 flights were canceled at O'Hare International Airport because of the weather, and many others were delayed by up to two hours.

And freezing rain made driving hazardous across parts of the nation's midsection. At least 12 people died in crashes on rain and ice-slickened roads in Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana on Tuesday.

Rail passengers seemed especially hard-hit. Don and Barbara Seifert, of Prophetstown, Ill., spent a sleepless night at Chicago's Union Station with hundreds of angry customers.

After waiting 12 hours for their New York-bound train to depart, the Seiferts abandoned plans to visit their son and his family for the holidays.

"It's spoiled our Christmas, sure," Don Seifert, 73, said Tuesday before he and his wife headed back to their western Illinois home.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said crews in some cities headed out with picks and shovels to clear snow-packed track switches.

About 600 passengers in Chicago waited up to 22 hours before boarding their delayed trains: the Lake Shore Limited, bound for New York, and the Seattle- and Portland-bound Empire Builder.