It astonishes me that Amtrak is either unwilling or incapable of providing bus bridges in the event of weather-related emergencies. East—west highways were clear by the evening of 9-9-11. That gave Amtrak and area bus operators plenty of time to round up drivers to shuttle passengers to stations along the line.
Amtrak owes its customers public transit; not an expensive car rental or staying put.
Sloan, be glad they are at least running to Lancaster. There is a mentality within Amtrak that would just cancel the entire route until it could be run in full.
But I agree, there should be some sort of alternate service as long as it's possible. At very least, and especially on a weekend, they could have teamed with CAT of Harrisburg and RRTA of Lancaster and put together some type of bus bridge between the two stops.
Perhaps even the Pennsylvanian could have continued as far as Lewistown, with a bus bridge to Lancaster and Keystone equipment substituting on the eastern rail segment. I don't know whether the flooding issues were in Harrisburg proper, or the area near the Rockville Bridge where the tracks are close to and cross the Susquehanna River.
And also from the above cited article:
There was no list of hotels at the train station and no one with useful information.
Um, you just didn't look in the right places!