Post-July 4 Kentucky Cardinal

[Superliner Diner]

As we were reminded in another thread, the Kentucky Cardinal will no longer be serving its namesake state (or suburban Jeffersonville, IN) beyond the first week of July. The train will be retained from Indianapolis north to Chicago.

NICTD, by the way, is the operator of the South Shore Line commuter rail between South Bend and Chicago, and it is said they are already proposing two new lines, to Valparaiso and Dyer, on the current route of the Cardinal/Kentucky Cardinal.

What are your thoughts for retention of the rest of this train?

 

[Viewliner]

I feel its best to run it as the Hoosier State, as it would offer familiar name to a familiar route. It also makes sense to run it daily, with a schedule different than the Cardinal's. This way, the times the train departs/arrives can be improved, and add's a frequency on days the Cardinal runs, while maintaing daily service, which will stabilize ridership.

 

[Amfleet]

Let the state run it. Amtrak has enough on there plate.

 

[battalion51]

I think Amtrak should get out of the K-Card all together. while there may be room for further development as a HSR situation, it will be a drain on Amtrak, and therefore not useful. The capital Amtrak uses for the train could be better used on a highly populated train like the LSL and Silver Service.

 

[AlanB]

I think Amtrak should get out of the K-Card all together. while there may be room for further development as a HSR situation, it will be a drain on Amtrak, and therefore not useful. The capital Amtrak uses for the train could be better used on a highly populated train like the LSL and Silver Service.

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with that.

Cutting the train altogether isn't going to allow Amtrak to move capital to other trains. Amtrak will have to continue paying the crews for that train even if it's discontinued. This is one of the reasons that David Gunn keeps telling everyone, that cutting LD trains isn't going to save huge amounts of money. Union contracts require Amtrak to provides jobs for a certain period of time, regardless of whether the train is still running or not.

Additionally you are cutting a connection service, which in turn may hurt some of the other LD routes. The more trains that connect with other trains, the more that ridership goes up on all trains.

Accordingly I voted to rename it to the Hoosier State and get a better schedule.

 

[Superliner Diner]

In my own poll I too voted for the Hoosier State, running it on a schedule independent of the Cardinal's. It needs to be scheduled just right so that the train can make its connections in Chicago to and from western trains, while still serving Indianapolis at more friendly times.

Figuring this out is a little confusing, because Indianapolis does not observe Daylight Savings Time while Chicago does. So the times may be off by an hour for half the year. But let's assume that trains take roughly 5.5 hours between the two cities.

I figure if the northbound train left Indianapolis about 7:30 AM, it would get to Chicago by 1 PM, in time to make most western connections. Improve the Dyer-Chicago portion by opening new track connections via Illinois Central and Norfolk Southern's Chicago Line, and you probably could get into Chicago around 12 noon.

Since the Capitol Limited will soon be leaving Chicago at 5:35 PM, then this train could get away with a 5:30 PM Chicago departure as well. That should put it into Indianapolis at 11 PM, which is not ideal but better than 2:05 AM.

 

[battalion51]

Improve the Dyer-Chicago portion by opening new track connections via Illinois Central and Norfolk Southern's Chicago Line

The tough thing about opening up new line on CN and NS is that the track must meet passenger standards. As you may know, just because a track meets freight standards, does not mean that it can handle passenger traffic. This is part of the reason why many new commuter systems have a hard time getting off the ground, as the line they want to run is not set up for passenger service.

 

[Superliner Diner]

Improve the Dyer-Chicago portion by opening new track connections via Illinois Central and Norfolk Southern's Chicago Line

The tough thing about opening up new line on CN and NS is that the track must meet passenger standards. As you may know, just because a track meets freight standards, does not mean that it can handle passenger traffic. This is part of the reason why many new commuter systems have a hard time getting off the ground, as the line they want to run is not set up for passenger service.

Battalion,

Most of the proposed reroute already does meet passenger standards, and in fact does already host Amtrak trains. I am unclear where the cutover would be, but at some point the trains would turn west off the CSX (ex-Monon) line that the Cardinal & K-Card now use, and go over to the CNIC mainline that the Illini and City of New Orleans use. The purpose of this reroute is to improve running time, so naturally the track on the connecting line will be improved to passenger standards too.

The only difference in the route is that they plan to build a connection at Grand Crossing (near the 75th Street Metra station) where CNIC passes underneath the NS Chicago Line, so that trains coming up the CNIC line can turn left and head directly into Chicago Union Station, instead of using the St. Charles Air Line and then backing over the BNSF as they do now. 50/51, 58/59, 391/392, and 850/851 (whatever remains of the K-Card/Hoosier State) would use the Grand Crossing connection.

 

[AlanB]

Two weeks are up, last chance to vote.