Amtrak fixes ticket glitch

WASHINGTON -- A computer system glitch that blocked rail passengers from buying Amtrak tickets online and at station kiosks across the country this weekend was fully repaired Sunday, an Amtrak spokeswoman said.

The system first went down about 7 a.m. Saturday, forcing Amtrak to switch to a backup system with staff writing tickets manually. There were some reports of long lines, as customers could only buy tickets in person, but the train system remained operating, spokeswoman Vernae Graham said.

"This did not cause any delays to the train operation," Graham said.

Electronic ticketing was restored Saturday for short periods of time, but the service was intermittent throughout the day, Graham said.

On Saturday night, technicians discovered the problem was caused by recently installed software. The system was fully restored by 1 p.m. Sunday.

Graham said she couldn't recall a previous failure of Amtrak's entire ticketing system.