Cardinal discussion

When was the business class added? Back when IPH started providing business class on the Hoosier State or when Amtrak took back the Hoosier State?

Business class makes more sense on a daily train than a tri-weekly. And if dropping the "business" car allows for improvement of service (a full lounge or another sleeper) that is a bonus.

Are there enough new sleepers on hand and serviceable to add another sleeping car?

The five V-II Bag-dorms now on the property is a good start.

According to the Facebook page , the business class car will be replaced by a new Viewdiner , to be used as a sleeper lounge. this is announced as now been "official".
How many seats in the new diners? With only one sleeping car , could they sell some seats in the diner as business class?

Mr. Benton: Good idea, but you can’t reasonably sell a bench seat at a table. There’s no conventional seats in a V-II diner.

Well this is a piece of very welcome news. Nice to see efforts being made on routes that have such a hard time making a go of it.

I had the opportunity to observe today's Cardinal, train 51(10), in northern Virginia

P42 locomotive 5, two A2 coaches, one A2 cafe lounge, one A1 business class lounge (lounge section forward, with business class section to rear against sleeper), one V1 sleeper, and one V2 baggage dorm 69003.

This is the first time I have seen a new V2 baggage dorm operating on this train.

mtuandrew wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2019 6:59 pm Mr. Benton: Good idea, but you can’t reasonably sell a bench seat at a table. There’s no conventional seats in a V-II diner.

I agree with your statement, but that's exactly what Iowa Pacific did. Their "business class" was a full dome. Every seat was at a larger table, basically a dining car arrangement, with low-back seats to allow full 360-views.

I enjoyed the dome a bit (it was cornfields) but the low-back seats in "business" were a contrast with high-back seats in "coach", which was P-S straight coach. Huh??? The dome was also a very lively affair while the coach was quiet. It totally missed the idea of business class by assuming all businesspeople wanted a dome seat.

Moderator Note: pushed a few seating-related posts elsewhere. Carry on.

mtuandrew wrote: ↑Sun May 17, 2020 12:44 pm Moderator Note: pushed a few seating-related posts elsewhere. Carry on.

Good Eye!

Are sleeper passengers on the Cardinal still confined to their rooms for the whole trip, and not allowed to use tables in the cafe? Do all meals have to be consumed in room? Why is that the policy on the Cardinal but not on the LSL, where passengers are allowed to eat in the diner?

I don't know if that this still true. My complete guess about why the Cardinal has the rule and the LSL doesn't is that the LSL carries a cafe and a diner, whereas the Cardinal just has the one cafe car, and it would be reasonable to save those tables for the folks in coach, who have less space.

Also, re Tad's post about IP selling the dome tables as "Business Class", I think that just shows that "Business Class" is a vague concept that pretty much just means "more expensive than coach" but not a sleeper or a private room. IP had a dome diner. They wanted to sell dome seating and charge more for it. Amtrak had a category called "Business Class" in the reservation system. The dome became "Business Class." I am close to positive that they didn't think "Business Class" was for businesspeople, especially not on that train's schedule.

https://www.miamistudent.net/article/20 ... ak-station

Students may soon have a new way to get to Oxford. The City of Oxford, in partnership with Miami University, has moved forward in creating an Amtrak station in the city.

Oxford will be added as a stop to the Cardinal Line, which runs from Washington D.C. to Chicago.

Jessica Greene, assistant city manager, explained the Amtrak station has been a project in Oxford since at least 2017. After reviewing a few potential locations around town for the station, the city settled on an area off South Main Street.

“Amtrak reviewed our request, and they agreed that we had enough population for what's called a category four platform,” Greene said.

The platform will have a kiosk that travelers can buy tickets from before boarding the train.

“[Amtrak] told us to proceed with securing funding and planning, but they didn't formally agree to the stop,” Greene said.
...

This might be a good time to restructure the CARDINAL into a more marketable service. Recently Amtrak announced several proposals regarding service in Ohio that included increasing trains on the Chicago-Cincinnati route. Unless track conditions are vastly improved this is pure folly. Simply put Ohio and Indiana are not going to spend a dime on
an upgrading. Assuming things stay as is my suggestion is:
1. Convert the train to Superliners
2. Adjust the schedule for a 9am-11pm DC-CIN run
3. Overnite CHI-CIN Midnite-8am
4.In addition to Oxford, consider stops in Hamilton, OH and Richmond, IN.

The Superliners would come off the CAPITOL LTD which would convert to single level equipment on a new schedule and routing but that's another topic.

If the Capitol Limited were covered to single level equipment it could start in Philadelphia or even NYC. Then PA would get a 2nd daily train between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

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