Article on riding the Cardinal from Chicago to NYC

[Mollie]

If anyone is interested I wrote an article on my experience onboard the Cardinal from Chicago to NYC - I'd held off riding the Cardinal due to the dining car situation but was so glad I ended up riding onboard in the end - it's a spectacular trip!

https://trainreview.com/article/explori ... s-cardinal

[J.D. Lang]

I rode it back in mid July from Chicago to DC also and I'm also glad that I did. The New River Gorge and the Blue Ridge MTS. definitely make for a scenic ride. I just read your nice review of the trip. Best to ride it now or as early as you feel comfortable to do because it may not be around much longer.

[STrRedWolf]

Interesting. An overnighter wouldn't be too bad, but definitely not something for a two-day trip. You definitely need a proper diner.

[Pensyfan19]

I rode the Cardinal three years ago in the opposite direction, from NYC to Chicago, in order to connect to the California Zephyr to Emeryville and then a few days later the Coast Starlight to LA followed by the Surfliner to Disneyland. Although the westbound train did leave early, I think around 6 AM, I still had a good time on the run. Track conditions were a bit bumpy for a few minutes in Western Virginia (CSX was doing trackwork near the area) but the scenery was its best in the state of West Virginia with the numerous Mountains. I also had some good railfanning along the NEC, passed by the C&O Railway Heritage Center, as well as some local CSX switching in Indiana. Even though I rode coach for the trip and saved the sleeper for the Zephyr, (I was awake for most of the trip anyways, including the middle of the night) the Cardinal definitely was a good experience to ride on.

[Matt Johnson]

Interesting. An overnighter wouldn't be too bad, but definitely not something for a two-day trip. You definitely need a proper diner.

I rode aboard the Cardinal from Chicago to DC in 2015. What I missed most was a proper lounge car for viewing scenery. I tried using the cafe car but it was closed for much of the day it seemed. When used for meal service, it was acceptable as a diner, though food quality was more in line with the new "contemporary" model.

[Pensyfan19]

Interesting. An overnighter wouldn't be too bad, but definitely not something for a two-day trip. You definitely need a proper diner.

I rode aboard the Cardinal from Chicago to DC in 2015. What I missed most was a proper lounge car for viewing scenery. I tried using the cafe car but it was closed for much of the day it seemed. When used for meal service, it was acceptable as a diner, though food quality was more in line with the new "contemporary" model.

Now that you have that picture, I remember my train having two amfleet II café cars: one serving as a regular snack car, and one serving as a dining car like the one in that picture, which I had dinner and breakfast in while rolling through West Virginia and Indiana respectively. I appreciate Amtrak making the effort to turn a regular snack car into a dining car like that as that line is one of the only LD routes without a dining car. (The other one would be the Piedmont, but I'm not sure if that would count as an LD train.)

[mtuandrew]

Pensy: Piedmont no, that’s a state-supported train. The longest non-supported day train is the Palmetto, which doesn’t have a diner either.

[Matt Johnson]

Now that you have that picture, I remember my train having two amfleet II café cars: one serving as a regular snack car, and one serving as a dining car like the one in that picture, which I had dinner and breakfast in while rolling through West Virginia and Indiana respectively. I appreciate Amtrak making the effort to turn a regular snack car into a dining car like that as that line is one of the only LD routes without a dining car. (The other one would be the Piedmont, but I'm not sure if that would count as an LD train.)

That's a good point - Amtrak did add a second Amfleet cafe in recent years. When I took the train in 2015, it had a single Amfleet II cafe, half of which was used for sleeper passenger dining. Whether the train will eventually get a new Viewliner II dining car/sleeper lounge remains to be seen, but then I guess given the current state of things all bets are off. The train does now have a Viewliner II bag-dorm, presumably freeing up revenue sleeper space in the full sleeper.

[Pensyfan19]

Pensy: Piedmont no, that’s a state-supported train. The longest non-supported day train is the Palmetto, which doesn’t have a diner either.

I did mean to say the Palmetto. Thank you.

[J.D. Lang]

When I rode it this summer in July it only had 1 Amfleet Cafe car that served as both a cafe car and diner for sleeping car passengers. Because of Covid you could not sit in that car. Our car attendent would give us the menu, then come around and take our orders then call our room numbers when the food was ready to be picked up. Surprisingly our Viewliner sleeper was about 2/3 occupied and of course the Viewliner II bag-dorm was on the end for OBS people plus the coaches were about half full. So what happened is that I ordered my dinner around 6:00PM and I didn't get it till around 8:30PM. There was only 1 cafe car attendent with 1 microwave to nuke the "flex diner" so this person was trying to cater to the coach passengers while trying to nuke the "diners" when he had a chance. Pretty poor setup.

[Morning Zephyr]

Just rode 51 Charlottesville to Chicago. I live in NY and have been avoiding the Cardinal for years because of the poor food service, but now that Amtrak has downgraded the Lake Shore food, I figured now the Cardinal cannot be worse, in terms of food, and it's better in terms of scenery. I was right on the second point but wrong on the first - even though Amtrak has made the Lake Shore Limited pretty bad, they've made the Cardinal even worse than it was. No lounge access, no table dining, just everyone confined to their rooms. Sullen, unhelpful crew. It's a shame that a route with such good scenery has such unsuitable equipment.

[R36 Combine Coach]

The complete diner lite meal service was quite decent. I have a 2015 Cardinal menu saved and here are some
selections:

(note: since the Amfleet IIs lack a full grill, no items are "made to order" under diner lite, all preheated meals)

- Cardinal Cheeseburger
- Marketplace Sandwich
- Penne Pasta with Meatballs
- Vegetarian Pasta with onions, garlic, sun-dried tomato, edamame & goat cheese
- Chicken Cacciatore
- Seared Turbot with artichokes, white wine & carrots
- Red Wine Braised Beef Short-rib

Not bad for heated meals done in on-board ovens (better than airline class).

[Mollie]

I agree the Amfleet diner cleans up well when the tables are set etc! The lack of a lounge car onboard is unfortunate - I can only imagine how great it would be to watch the Cardinal's beautiful scenery from a Superliner Sightseer lounge, or the Great Dome Car when it featured on the Caridnal!

[electricron]

The complete diner lite meal service was quite decent. I have a 2015 Cardinal menu saved and here are some selections: (note: since the Amfleet IIs lack a full grill, no items are "made to order" under diner lite, all preheated meals)
- Cardinal Cheeseburger
- Marketplace Sandwich
- Penne Pasta with Meatballs
- Vegetarian Pasta with onions, garlic, sun-dried tomato, edamame & goat cheese
- Chicken Cacciatore
- Seared Turbot with artichokes, white wine & carrots
- Red Wine Braised Beef Short-rib
Not bad for heated meals done in on-board ovens (better than airline class).

The Cardinal leaves NYP at 645 am eastern and is scheduled to arrive at CUS at 1020 am central the following morning1q. That’s 28 hours and 35 minutes on the train when it is on time. That easily is 3 meals at least, lunch, dinner, and breakfast: or four meals at most, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and breakfast. Most airline flights serve zero meals with snacks only, few flights include one meal and fewer flights Include more than one meal. Most Amtrak long distance trains west of Chicago include six meals, and one has at least eight meals. Why are we comparing airline meals with long distance train meals?
Should we not be comparing Amtrak long distance meals to cruise line meals? The Texas Eagle #421 or #422 takes longer between Chicago and Los Angeles than some short cruises from LA or Miami. If we were, Amtrak meals would not even rate a single star.

[STrRedWolf]

The Cardinal leaves NYP at 645 am eastern and is scheduled to arrive at CUS at 1020 am central the following morning1q. That’s 28 hours and 35 minutes on the train when it is on time. That easily is 3 meals at least, lunch, dinner, and breakfast: or four meals at most, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and breakfast. Most airline flights serve zero meals with snacks only, few flights include one meal and fewer flights Include more than one meal. Most Amtrak long distance trains west of Chicago include six meals, and one has at least eight meals. Why are we comparing airline meals with long distance train meals?
Should we not be comparing Amtrak long distance meals to cruise line meals? The Texas Eagle #421 or #422 takes longer between Chicago and Los Angeles than some short cruises from LA or Miami. If we were, Amtrak meals would not even rate a single star.

Not really, in pre-pandemic terms.

First, most of the flights you're citing are below five hours long. That's... between mealtimes. That means you're eating not on the plane but in the airport. So you need the overnight intercontinental flights to compare with, which DO have a meal.

Second, cruise lines have full kitchens and bars. The only comparison is LD lines that are 2-night trips (anything north/south or the west coast to Chicago or New Orleans). As elaborated in the Dining car thread, having a full diner on overnighters is a bit of a stretch.

Third, the cafe car is basically day-trip material you can get at 7-Eleven.

So you have to compare overnight LD with overseas air travel, and cruise lines with 2-night LD.

General consensus is the following ranking:

1. Cruise line food
2. 2-night LD food
3. Overseas air travel food
4. Overnight LD "FlexDining" food. (except breakfast)
5. 7-11
6. The cafe's food (including Overnight LD "FlexDining").

Can food on trains be done better? Of course.