ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – On a Michigan Amtrak train on Monday night, staff announced to passengers after a stop in Ann Arbor that two of the three toilets on the train no longer functioned due to frozen pipes.

Some Amtrak employees expressed concern that the lone remaining toilet would soon also freeze as temperatures dropped to as low as 18 degrees before it reached its final destination in Chicago. In case of emergency, passengers were told bathroom breaks would occur at every stop.

How often does this happen?

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It’s not a rare event with Amtrak in the winter. The Michigan Wolverine route from Detroit to Chicago can carry almost 300 passengers when at capacity, which happens during holidays.

“Having functioning comfort systems aboard our trains is, of course, a high priority,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told Michigan News Source. “We will not dispatch a train without any working toilet systems, just as we would not originate a train without HVAC. We occasionally charter buses for the above reasons.”

How do the systems operate?

Amtrak stated its Michigan Services operate with a mixture of car types. The older cars have been more susceptible to frozen water systems and have been modified over the years to make them “more robust,” the company stated. The newer cars, owned by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and seen with the Amtrak Midwest branding, have been engineered differently but the company said those cars “are not immune from this problem.”

“Please know MDOT and Amtrak are in regular conversations with our equipment maintenance forces on maintaining the older cars — and with the manufacturer of the newer cars — to improve the reliability of their systems,” Magliari said.

Ridership records.

Amtrak set a ridership record in 2024, carrying 32.8 million people in FY 2023-24. The Wolverine route, which is a 304-mile trip that goes from Detroit to Chicago, had 425,832 riders in 2024.