Railroad Forums 

  • Cardinal discussion

  • Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

 #1503087  by dowlingm
 
east point wrote:Until Congress changes the Amtrak legislation to acceptable LD requirements any route change and the necessary capital expenses we cannot expect any upgrades
Ohio and Indiana State governments finding enthusiasm for passenger rail generally wouldn't hurt either?
 #1503147  by bill613A
 
I think the ex-NYC line CIN-IND is now a short line and may have been truncated. It's poor condition was one of the reasons ATK switched to the less than swift ex-B&O line. Don't expect any financial support from Ohio. It is not in their DNA. My suggestion for the CARDINAL reset is not perfect especially cutting the NEC direct connections to Va, & W.Va. However I do think Virginia will start a second Roanoke train on a reverse schedule which should mitigate that problem somewhat. IF the CHI-CIN times could be tightened it would open a few more options but it doesn't appear that is on the horizon. What I do think lies ahead depends on this "corridor" plan and the pressure to cut less than stellar performing LD trains, the tri-weekly CARDINAL & SUNSET being the prime target so the time is right to get proactive.
 #1513501  by TCurtin
 
Has anybody out there been on The Cardinal lately? Reason I ask is my wife and I are planning to go to The Greenbrier resort for the holidays, and that train literally takes you right to the front door (Well, across the road from the front door .....) How is the quailty of the service? How is the timekeeping? I hesitate somewhat to take my wife on a 427 mile, 10 hour ride each way to and from NYP if it's not a nice trip. BTW, I see it now has business class seating.
 #1513503  by Amtrak706
 
Timekeeping ranges from OK to awful. The Amfleet II diner-lite food is vile. The cafe portion of the car serves much better food. Business class is actually quite nice, especially as a lower cost option for overnight. Sleeper is nice as always, and Coach is coach. Scenery is interesting. Overall, standard Amtrak I think
 #1513511  by Tadman
 
Because there's only one sleeper, it fills up faster and is more expensive. I've found timekeeping to be risky, but if you're going on vacation, a few hours shouldn't make much difference. What direction are you coming from? The western end of the trip is cornfields.
 #1513513  by mtuandrew
 
If you feel apprehensive about the full 10 hours, you could fly to Charlottesville (a perfectly pretty college town), spend a night poking around Jefferson’s old digs, and do 3-4 hours on the Cardinal instead. Nothing against the NEC or Northern Virginia but that last hundred fifty miles will be the most scenic part anyway.
 #1513523  by CarterB
 
Travelling to from NYP to the Greenbrier should be a quite pleasant trip on the Cardinal. You'll get there in time for dinner
and get home at a relatively reasonable hour. Definetely book business class. Food on board won't be great, but you could pack your own lunch and get beverages in the diner lite. Not much in the way of scenery except last hour or so going down.
However it beats driving down from NYC.
 #1513537  by ThirdRail7
 
You shouldn't have too much of an issue travelling to WSS. If we check the results for train 51 at WSS , it averages 33 mins late at WSS. over the last year or so.

Travelling from WSS, the the average departure delay is 51 mins

However, the train often loses time between WSS-NYP. The average delay stretches to 85 mins at NYP.
 #1514404  by Gilbert B Norman
 
Mr. Curtin, if a report at another site is to be believed, it appears The Cardinal will lose Business Class effective Oct 1.
 #1514410  by David Benton
 
Mr Norman , pretty much confirmed on the Cardinal facebook page, where at least some posters are employees, or station volunteers.
Some are pointing out The business class car only had 18 seats , due to been 1/2 unused cafe. And that possibly the Cardinal is on the limit for one engine , so it may actually be been removed to allow for another sleeper. Apparently different rules (by CSX?) apply to adding a car permanently , vs seasonally.
For facebookers,
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmtraksCardinal/
 #1514417  by justalurker66
 
If it is a CSX car limit it would affect the deadhead runs to Indy. Unless, as you suggest, adding cars for one run would be OK but permanently adding a car would not.
 #1514419  by David Benton
 
That's just my take , on somebody else's take , on Facebook!
I normally wouldn't post such, but the group does contain some Amtrak employees , and some volunteers, ( route guides , I think ).
Please interpret with the above in mind.
 #1514424  by mtuandrew
 
If the decision to remove Business class does have to do with the number of cars, I bet it’s just that Amtrak is too stingy to pay any more wheelage fees. (Or the capacity of one P42 to haul cars over the Appalachians.)

Does this mean Amtrak is switching over to a full cafe-lounge instead of the business-cafe?
  • 1
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 62