Amtrak trains stranded overnight in snow

Passengers were stranded on board a trio of Amtrak trains overnight in Illinois due to a snow storm, the Associated Press reports.

The trains, which were traveling to Chicago, were stuck for several hours Monday night in Mendota, Ill., when tracks began impassable, according to the report.

{mosads}The trains were carrying about 500 passengers combined. Buses were brought in early Tuesday morning by Amtrak to allow the travelers to complete their trips.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told the AP that the company decided it was better for the stranded passengers to be on its trains than out in the elements.

“There was no good reason to take people out of warm trains … into the cold,” Magliari said. “We sheltered them in place.”

Amtrak had previously announced that it was reducing the frequency of some of its trains in the Northeast because of the inclement weather.

The move was in response to temperatures dropping into the single digits in major cities on the East Coast and in the Midwest on Monday night as part of a weather pattern meteorologists have dubbed a “polar vortex.”