2 Questions on Cardinal (Charlottesville VA -> Lafayette IN

[Meenie]

A question on a sort of related note...On the Cardinal, what with the limited capacity of the dinette/lounge, are coach passengers even offered a seating for the "diner" part of that car? My best friend and I are traveling from Ashland, KY to Washington and back in January. I'd like to maybe at least have one meal in the sit down part of the dinette, but is that even offered to coach passengers, or exclusively for the sleeper folks on the Card?

Yes, I was in coach from Charlottesville to Lafayette, Indiana and I had dinner in the dining car. The only difference is that the meal isn't included in the charge for coach - you have to pay for it just like you would in a restaurant.

You are usually seated with other people - but since there are two of you, you may not be. I enjoyed the meal I had. The company was quite nice and the food was good. (I had the pasta) There were three choices for dinner that night - a pasta dish, a chicken dish and a steak dish. They offer dessert too but I didn't get it, I was too full

 

[Ryan]

Also, every time I've ridden the train, I've been late. The only time I wasn't late was on the Cardinal going to Lafayette, IN. we were spot on - RIGHT on time.

Aren't these two statements completely contradictory? Yes, trains are late from time to time. So are airplanes. And buses.

No they aren't completely contradictory. BUT if will make it more understandable for you, I will rephrase the above statement to

" Every time I've ridden the train except for ONE time, I've been late. That ONE time was on the Cardinal going to Lafayette..... "

I've taken the train many times and only been on time once.

I've flown many times and only been LATE once (the plane had a maintenance problem and had to be taken out - we had to wait several hours for another flight and got a free ticket to ride again)

I never ride the bus if I can help it, I hate them, the only time I've ridden a bus since I've been grown (which is a long long time, hehe) is when the train was so late it put us on a bus so we'd make it to Washington in time to make our connecting train (and there was a long layover there for our next train!)

You know, you don't have to be rude about it. But since you were, I'd suggest that you look up the meaning of the word "every". Saying "Also, every time I've ridden the train, I've been late. " is wrong, full stop. While you're at it, examine the difference between anecdotes and data. All modes of transportation are late some percent of the time, regardless of what your personal experience is.

 

[Meenie]

You know, you don't have to be rude about it. But since you were, I'd suggest that you look up the meaning of the word "every". Saying "Also, every time I've ridden the train, I've been late. " is wrong, full stop. While you're at it, examine the difference between anecdotes and data. All modes of transportation are late some percent of the time, regardless of what your personal experience is.

And you don't have to play silly semantics games either.

You are grammatically correct, I used the word "every" then stated an outlier. my apologies. Since it caused you to be unable to understand the context of the thought, I changed it for you, not wishing to be "rude" but wishing to create a statement that you could wrap your mind around.

The conductors on Amtrak try very hard to keep the train running on time, however each stop they make (and their stops are numerous) is a new opportunity for something to cause their timing to be off just a bit. Add just a few of those "bits" together and Amtrak doesn't beat the other trains that have the right of way so then Amtrak has to stop and let them go by which very often causes a long delay. This is a fact, not an anecdote.

But then, you knew that, didn't you?

 

[Ryan]

I understood your statement just fine.

There are lots of things that delay cars and airplanes as well. Again, anecdotes, not data.

 

[wally fay]

A question on a sort of related note...On the Cardinal, what with the limited capacity of the dinette/lounge, are coach passengers even offered a seating for the "diner" part of that car? My best friend and I are traveling from Ashland, KY to Washington and back in January. I'd like to maybe at least have one meal in the sit down part of the dinette, but is that even offered to coach passengers, or exclusively for the sleeper folks on the Card?

Yes, I was in coach from Charlottesville to Lafayette, Indiana and I had dinner in the dining car. The only difference is that the meal isn't included in the charge for coach - you have to pay for it just like you would in a restaurant.

You are usually seated with other people - but since there are two of you, you may not be. I enjoyed the meal I had. The company was quite nice and the food was good. (I had the pasta) There were three choices for dinner that night - a pasta dish, a chicken dish and a steak dish. They offer dessert too but I didn't get it, I was too full

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I know that coach passengers have to pay for their meals in the diner. Did your coach attendant take reservations for dinner in the diner part of the dinette/lounge, or did you just show up and ask to be seated or how does that work on the Card?

 

[Meenie]

I just walked up and asked - I had to wait about 10 minutes. I just sat in the cafe car until they were ready for me. They didn't go through the cars making reservations, but they did announce what time the dining car would start serving.

 

[Meenie]

I understood your statement just fine.

There are lots of things that delay cars and airplanes as well. Again, anecdotes, not data.

Ok - pure data - airlines first, then amtrak

Percentage of time that the airlines are on time, by carrier: (http://www.cbsnews.c...age/?tag=mwuser)

1. Hawaiian Airlines -- 95.1
2. Alaska Airlines -- 90.9
3. Southwest Airlines -- 83.8
4. AirTran Airways -- 81.2
5. Mesa Airlines -- 80.9
6. Delta Air Lines -- 79.9
7. American Airlines -- 77.6
8. American Eagle -- 75.9
9. Continental Airlines -- 75.9
10. US Airways -- 75.5
11. Skywest Airlines -- 75.1
12. JetBlue Airways -- 74.1
13. United Airlines -- 73.0
14. Frontier Airlines -- 72.8
15. ExpressJet Airlines -- 71.1
16. Atlantic Southeast Airlines -- 69.0

Percentage of times that Amtrak is on time - this is Amtrak's own calculations: (http://www.amtrak.co...6/1237405732511)

and a little quote from Amtrak: "As many of you know, the tracks Amtrak trains travel outside of the Northeast Corridor are owned by various host freight and commuter railroads. We offer this information as an opportunity for you to follow along as we work with those railroads on the path to improvement and to assist you in planning your trip."

they had two identifiers - Sept 2011 and Last 12 months

Cardinal/Hoosier State 50% 49.2%

Adirondac 53.3 55.3

California Zephyr 30.4 34.4

Capitol Corridor 48.3 43.9

Empire Service 73.5 82.3

Heartland Flyer 33.3 67.3

Lakeshore Limited 43.8 48.5

NE Regional overall 83.6 80.3

NE Regional #94 71.4 68.2

NE Regional #99 77.8 76.7

Silver Service 75.9 72.7

There's a lot more you can look and and a lot of detail pulled out if you'd like to see. I avoided the express trains and tried to pick a group from different areas but there's plenty more out there.