'Travel hell:' Passengers navigate delayed flights and trains

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- Those traveling by train or plane continue to face travel delay challenges after the holiday season.

At Moynihan Train Hall on Monday night, Amtrak passengers were parked on the ground with trains delayed up to 9 hours.

In New York City, at least 161 flights were canceled at LaGuardia Airport, over 300 flights at John F. Kennedy Airport, and at least 377 at Newark International Airport, on Monday. Passengers are at the whim of the extreme winter weather in other parts of the county.

However, the biggest headache happened for those flying with Southwest Airlines, which canceled up to 80 percent of its flights over the past two days. Southwest canceled 2,886 flights on Monday, or 70 percent of scheduled flights, after canceling 48 percent on Sunday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

In a statement, Southwest offered "heartfelt apologies" and said, "with consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our customers and employees in a significant way that is unacceptable."

The airline added it was working "to urgently address wide-scale disruption by rebalancing the airline and repositioning crews and our fleet ultimately to best serve all who plan to travel with us."

The U.S. Department of Transportation is concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations, delays, and reports of lack of prompt customer service. The USDOT will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.