cpotisch
Engineer
Yep. It was 3 this time, as well.True for sure on the Cardinal, but the LSL has not cut back that far. When I traveled, 3 worked the car.....
Yep. It was 3 this time, as well.True for sure on the Cardinal, but the LSL has not cut back that far. When I traveled, 3 worked the car.....
In addition to the comparatively low capacity of the Viewliners, New York to Chicago is a significantly busier route than DC to Chicago (there’s much more business done in NY). And the Cardinal tends to be particularly pricey due to its short consist.Supply & demand. Need to remember the single level cars (LSL and Card) have less seats and rooms than the superliners (Cap Ltd)I've never ridden this route, why is it so expensive?The big disappointment about food quality on the LSL is that its one of the most expensive routes to Chicago. You pay a lot of money to ride this train. Sleepers are often at high bucket as are coach seats. The high prices, decreased amenities and lack of a diner are an absolute disgrace. .
The only other route that can be fairly compared with the LSL is the Cardinal.. . . the LSL isthat its one of the most expensive routes to Chicago.
Amtrak should pay for new hires, and those requiring remedial training, to ride the Canadian for a couple days. Because that's how it's done! If those crews can be consistently great, even when trains are 24+ hours late, there is no excuse for some Amtrak crews being so brain dead.That is disappointing, and the variability of peoples experiences traveling over the same route is a repeated topic here. I had a crew that clearly made a less than optimum setup decent, and under the same circumstance, your crew did not. Improving "soft skills" might go further than improving equipment. A good crew in a marginal environment made my trip pleasant, your crew in a new diner would still be unacceptable.
Two sad words tonight:
Diner. And Lite.
Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
As I recall a number of years ago a Horizon cafe car was used as the diner.
You recall correctly. They did use the Horizon on the LSL and Adirondack in the past. They've also used them on the Cardinal on occasion. In general, that has stopped since most of them are banned in third rail territory. It is easier to just send them towards the territory instead of risking letting one get through.Could be, I remember reading about a no diner stretch some years ago. There are some pretty good historians on this site that will let us know.
I only have personal experience (most recently May 2017), and random comments from others to go by. I think the "typical" Canadian crew outshines the "typical" Amtrak crew. Sure there may be outliers--an occasional below-grade Canadian and above-grade American.The Canadian doesn't have consistently "great" OBS staff in my experience. The entire operation is a bit more classy, but crew is pretty hit or miss.
There's a difference between good training and good service. Just because an employee is trained by someone great at their job doesn't necessarily mean they'll be great.If Gul (legendary sleeper attendant from the empire builder) trained all of Amtraks OBS we would be in very good shape!
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