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Because of an accident, my train was diverted or 're-routed' to another station?

Are they both correct? If so, which one is more common in colloquial AmE?

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    I would tend to choose rerouted for vehicles and diverted for railway trains: books.google.com/ngrams/…
    – TimR
    Commented Aug 18, 2015 at 16:31
  • Please note that within the travel and transportation industry, these terms may have specific meanings that are different from those understood by the general population.
    – choster
    Commented Aug 18, 2015 at 17:18

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My understating is that:

  • To divert means to force off the predefined path, emphasis on the fact that it is not the original way, it's different now.
  • To re-route means to put on a different path, emphasis on reaching the destination by other means or ways (yet still reaching it).
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    Agreed. For example, if an airplane cannot land at the intended destination, e.g., due to snow, it is diverted to another city. The passengers might have to take a bus to the intended destination, because the plane could not get them there.
    – Brian Hitchcock
    Commented Aug 19, 2015 at 7:58

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