We're considering a round trip Ind-Chi same day just to get an idea of train travel in general. If they cancel Cardinal leaving Chicago, do they provide alternate transportation or are we stuck finding a rental?
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Cardinal discussion
- Thread starter AmtrakMaineiac
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Sometimes there is bustitution, but it's hard to say.
Just curious, how were you planning to do Indy-to-Cincy same day? Do note that the Cardinal is a night-time service between those two cities. I'm assuming leaving Indy at 12:15A and then getting back into Indy at 5:15A the next day?
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Sorry gotta edit Chicago not Cincinnati. It departs Ind at 6am, with a 10am arrival. Then departs Chicago the same day at 5:55pm.
joelkfla
Engineer
If you check the schedule on the website, there's a "Connecting Bus" that leaves CHI @ 10:35pm, arriving in IND @ 3:00am. They might put you on that. The bus might actually arrive somewhat earlier.
Good joined up thinking Amtrak, arrived at Moynihan for the 6.45 Cardinal in plenty of time so I could check my bag, only to discover, having done that, the Metropolitan lounge does not open until 7am on the weekend.
This sounds like a good day trip @PatchesC ! Amtrak day trips are my favorite.
What's great about this is that you get to spend some good considerable time in Chicago and then head back to Indy in good time.
Do you live on the west side of Indy by chance? If so, I'd strongly consider a Crawfordsville, IN (CRF) to CHI round trip instead of IND-CHI.
IND is a lousy station with expensive parking. CRF is small, but parking is free and safe (the station is across the street from the police station), and the schedule is better (7a-10pm). From where I live on the west side of Indy, the drive to Crawfordsville is quite easy.
If you stick with IND-CHI that is fine - but be prepared for the train/bus station to be the disgrace of the city.
We live 50 miles south of Indy, not many choices with reasonable driving and arrival times for a 1 day trip. Still on the fence making the trip considering the state of Indy at all because it would be me (barely 100LB female) and my 15yo daughter.
I'm not saying it is unsafe - just not the most pleasant place to spend a lot of time.
We've had issues in downtown Indy before with young but adult men approaching my daughter a few years ago. She's not felt so safe since so I'm more leary with the area in general.
JWM
Service Attendant
Fourth generation Hoosier and Indianapolis native. I'm old enough to remember when Union Station was something to look at. Today, the stop is a sick joke.
The main problem with that particular trip is the hours of departure. You may have to hang around that station for awhile as you are not sure what time the train will get in. I guess it all depends on your transportation to and from the station. Not much parking there.
Various online sources give you a good idea of where your train is at any given time. I recommend the track-your-train link on amtrak.com. If you check it over the course of a few trips of the Cardinal you develop a realistic sense of how much time you have left to arrive shortly before your train does.
I have checked both the amtrak.com website and the Great American Stations website and it shows Cincinnati as being closed on Monday and open the other 6 days of the week from midnight to 4: 00 AM.
I am arriving on the Cardinal that starts on a Sunday and arrives into Cincinnati at 1:31 on a Monday. Is the station closed on one of the three days the Cardinal runs westbound or am I reading all of this wrong or are both websites wrong and have not be updated from whenever the last change occurred?
I am arriving on the Cardinal that starts on a Sunday and arrives into Cincinnati at 1:31 on a Monday. Is the station closed on one of the three days the Cardinal runs westbound or am I reading all of this wrong or are both websites wrong and have not be updated from whenever the last change occurred?
glensfallsse
Service Attendant
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Pretty sure I'm doing something wrong, but I've been trying to look for trips on the Cardinal from NYP to Chicago on several dates in January, then more in March, but it doesn't come up as an option. It only wants to give me the LSL and then some other options with multiple trips.
Perhaps you wanted to travel on a day that the Cardinal does not run, since it's a 3 times a week Train while the LSL is Daily???
The image below was from Amtrak on Instagram and was describing the Cardinal (as you can see this is the fourth image over, the "Welcome to the Cardinal" was the first image). The image talks about a dining car on the Cardinal.
I took the Cardinal earlier this year from Cincinnati to Chicago and from the trainset that I took, it did not have a dining car, but two Amfleet coaches, a cafe car, sleeper, and a baggage dorm. I'm assuming that the dining car gets added somewhere along the route, but not the section of the route that I was involved with?
(Telling from that image, those look like Superliner windows to me - IMO)
I took the Cardinal earlier this year from Cincinnati to Chicago and from the trainset that I took, it did not have a dining car, but two Amfleet coaches, a cafe car, sleeper, and a baggage dorm. I'm assuming that the dining car gets added somewhere along the route, but not the section of the route that I was involved with?
(Telling from that image, those look like Superliner windows to me - IMO)
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trimetbusfan
OBS Chief
Yeah, that was a funny little error.. the Cardinal has not run with a Superliner nor dining car in many years. The only food service car is the cafe, which serves flex dining meals to sleeper passengers and cafe items to coach.
Cardinal not showing up in Amtrak booking: I had a similar problem a couple of years ago when the pandemic was ending and service was back on most routes. I knew which days the Cardinal was supposed to run, but it did not show up at all. I tried checking train status on the days it ran, but still got no results. I ended up asking someone familiar with the operation and was told that the train was running. Why it would not show up on the Amtrak computer I have no idea.
jis
Permanent Way Inspector
Staff member
Administator
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It is showing up fine when I look for it. So there may be something going on with your App/Browser. Are you sure you are not looking for it on a day that it does not run? Afterall it runs just three days a week.
I informed Amtrak of the wrong diner picture and that the Cardinal does not have a diner. I don't use Instagram, so I don't know if they fixed it (someone had posted a link to it on FB which is how I saw the error).
Make sure you're selecting dates that fall on Sunday, Wednesday or Friday. Those are the only days the Cardinal leaves NYP. I see the Cardinal when I use dates on those days in January.
This RPA version of the Cardinal timetable ... https://www.railpassengers.org/site/assets/files/20928/cardinal.pdf ... will help you make sure you're entering a day the Cardinal will be at your starting point and going in the desired direction.
• If your starting point is served only by the Cardinal and the starting day you tried to book is a day it won't be there the website will simply advise it's not available on that date and prompt you to opt for the next available day.
• If your starting point is also served by other trains and. . .
♦ . . . the starting day is not one when the Cardinal will be there, it won't be listed as a choice.
♦ . . . the starting day is one when the Cardinal will be there but the Cardinal is totally sold out, it will appear at the bottom of the list.
♦ . . . the starting day is one when the Cardinal will be there, the Cardinal has seats available but it does not appear as a choice, then Amtrak IT's Center Of Excellence has struck again.
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"there may be something going on with your App/Browser. Are you sure you are not looking for it on a day that it does not run?" Were you asking me? Concerning two years ago? (Your post was right after mine.) I mentioned that I knew which days the Cardinal runs. I've ridden it a few times, and I was living in Alexandria, Va., and before the pandemic I sometimes timed my walks in the park to see it go by. I was generally using Microsoft Edge, and I reserved and made trips to New York, Lancaster, and Harrisburg. Maybe Edge had a hidden default to block information about the Cardinal, or more likely CSX hacked my computer and installed Cardinal-blocking software. ;-)
