and the line stretched out really really far behind me. so i think when we got on the train in d.c. it was very full. by the time we got to philly my car, i m sure had thinned out. and i m not sure about the rest of the train since people come on and off, obviously, throughout the trip from d.c. to new york. and janelle, talk to me about the response. how quick was it? what did you see? when we got off of the train we were standing in gravel in the trees, kind of as far away from the train as we could. people were just kind of shouting to stay back stay back. they weren t sure about the electric poles, if they could chip in. they didn t know if the tracks if something electrical would happen with them. and it felt like forever but i m sure the response time you know was as fast as it could have been in that situation.
pennsylvania congressman patrick murphy capturing the train s cafe car turned on its side and nbc news producer janelle richards. this morning, the worst amtrak train accident in more than a decade and it s still too early to know what happened and why. and as we ve been telling you, amtrak train 188 was bound for new york. new york mayor bill de blasio reacted on morning joe today. i have 160 bridges in new york city that are over 100 years old. we have the challenge everyday of just keeping the basics together. our subway system had a day last year where we got six million riders in a single day. this country has to invest in infrastructure the way other countries do. we put 1.77% in our infrastructure. china puts 9%. it s no wonder we re being beat economically in many areas of competition because other parts of the world are investing in
jeff, thank you so much for being with me. i so appreciate your time. i m glad you re doing well. thank you. thank you. i want to bring in nbc news prix deucer janelle richards who was on one of the train cars that ended up upright after the crash. janelle, good morning, thanks for being with me. good morning. so glad you re okay. describe what you felt and what you saw? i, when i was riding on the train, i heard a loud crash and i felt the impact. i mean, i flung forward and then back and forward again and back and i could see people kind of getting lifted out of their seats and i knew that we had crashed. but obviously i didn t know how or why or really what had happened. and janelle, you never know something like this is going to occur but did you sense anything previous to this crash that you described? did you sense anything?
but i knew after a couple of minutes i started to see lights in the sky which were profrom helicopters so i knew that someone knew where we were and shortly after they heard sirens and i knew that help was on the way. it s the first sign after was when i looked over out into what seemed like the woods but what was really a fence and there were over a dozen flashlights aimed in our direction. that s all we could see were these little dots of light. that s how i knew first responders were here and ithey just started to drill. so sparks were flying from the fence as they cut it down to come get us. janelle, speaking with jeff who was in another train car than you were but on that train last night, he was saying that there was he didn t sense any panic, even among the people that were injured, those that were helping the others, that people were very nervous and scared and concerned but no sense of panic.
i would i think there was panic a sense of maybe it was just shock. people were definitely asking what happened? what happened? and i remember kind of hearing somebody crying or getting a little hysterical. but for what had happened i do agree with that. i think everyone was in shock more than anything and that the hysteria didn t probably set in until hopefully people had gotten off of the train and were able to process what had happened. nbc news producer janelle richards. thank you for being with me. so appreciate your time so glad you re doing well. thank you. our coverage of the train derailment continues after a quick break. coming up, we expect to talk to former congressman patrick murphy who was also on that train last night. here eerps what here s what he had to say just an hour ago. let me ask you, based upon your experience and your life thus far, how frustrated, how