The Cardinal needs one more sleeper

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tervichi seven said:
Truncate the Cardinal in DC and use Superliner equipment on the train.

Is there really a need for the Cardinal to operate to NYP? No. Use the Regionals to connect with it in DC.
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Discussed and rejected in the Cardinal Performance Improvement plan released by Amtrak last September. See http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServer?blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobkey=id&blobwhere=1249215318387&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobheadername1=Content-disposition&blobheadervalue1=attachment;filename=Amtrak_PRIIA-210-Cardinal-PIP.pdf

As already posted, the Cardinal increased ridership when it switched to starting from NYP. The second reason is Amtrak does not have the Superliner equipment available.

You know, for a 3 day a week LD train, the Cardinal - and the Sunset Limited - seem to get more posts on here than most of the other LD trains, all of which carry a lot more passengers. If Amtrak can take the Cardinal daily, add a sleeper or baggage dorm (in 2+ years) to add capacity, make some improvements to the total trip time on the Chicago end, and improve on-time performance, after a brief flurry of posts, the number of posts and threads on the Cardinal will probably go into steep decline. (just kidding)
 
afigg said:
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You know, for a 3 day a week LD train, the Cardinal - and the Sunset Limited - seem to get more posts on here than most of the other LD trains, all of which carry a lot more passengers.
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These two trains are, at least in potential, showpiece trains. (So is the Empire Builder, and that gets a lot of posts too.) But the Card, SL, and EB are are all trains with problems: The Card isn't daily and doesn't have enough capacity, the SL isn't daily and has been cut back to New Orleans, and the EB's on-time performance isn't good and is dealing with long-term flooding in the form of Devils Lake. All three are obvious places to suggest ideas for improvement, both on a practical level and in dreams. Not so with, say, the Zephyr or the LSL. I'd like to see these as three-four times a day. But then I'd like to see all the LD trains at that kind of frequency, and we all know that's not happening anytime real soon.

Another train that gets a lot of posts on here is the Desert Wind, and it's currently a 0 day a week LD train. :)
 
As far as the Sunset to Florida goes, Isn't it true that historically that train has terminated for a much larger proportion of its existence in NOL than it has run through to Florida? The original Amtrak system train was a Los Angeles - New Orleans train. It did get extended briefly to Florida, and then got cut back after Katrina, admittedly using some bizarre logic. But still, it's mostly been a LAX - NOL train and one could consider its occasional excursions out to Florida more as an anomaly than a regularity IMHO.
 
I don't know the history, so you may be right. But the truncation is still a kind of anomaly, especially since it's still listed in the timetable, though as having no service.
 
What is the limitation on getting the Cardinal back to daily service?

I'm assuming it's the length of the trip and they can't get the train set turned fast enough to make the trip back, so they'd need an additional train. Am I correct?
 
Oldsmoboi said:
What is the limitation on getting the Cardinal back to daily service?

I'm assuming it's the length of the trip and they can't get the train set turned fast enough to make the trip back, so they'd need an additional train. Am I correct?
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The main limitation is that the host railroads (namely, NS, CSX and Buckingham Branch) have to approve the operation of a daily train, and they have not yet done so, and are likely to demand eight or nine figures worth of infrastructure investment to accommodate the additional frequency.
 
What additional infrastructure investment is needed by the freight roads for a daily train that isn't already there for a thrice weekly train?!
 
Well, the Buckingham Branch is basically a single-track railroad with tiny sidings sporadically thrown about. They have to shut their railroad down to most freight traffic for several hours when the two Cardinals come through. They use the non-Cardinal days to recover and clear out the backlog. If there are no non-Cardinal days, they either need much longer sidings or they have to turn away some of the freight traffic that keeps them in business.

On the CSX end, where the two Cardinals would meet if they operated daily is a single-track ABS railroad with manual (hand-throw) switches and track warrants. Not the best conditions to have two passenger trains meet (not impossible, but not really desirable). So, you'd probably have to pay to put in some CTC, some dispatcher-controlled sidings, etc.

It's not as simple as saying "we're going to run daily and all will be well with the world."
 
Ryan said:
Given that there is another train running WAS-CHI and and NYP-CHI, I don't see that as a bad thing.

I'd love to see it daily, but Amtrak should have higher priorities.
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It was one of their few opportunities to expand service in the near future, though, since the only equipment needed is a single sleeper. Amtrak should definitely have other long-term priorities, but a daily Cardinal seemed like a relatively easy way to improve their offerings soon, rather than waiting years in the status quo.
 
eagle628 said:
It was one of their few opportunities to expand service in the near future, though, since the only equipment needed is a single sleeper. Amtrak should definitely have other long-term priorities, but a daily Cardinal seemed like a relatively easy way to improve their offerings soon, rather than waiting years in the status quo.
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Finding an extra car or two for the Cardinal is not what is keeping it from going daily. There are trackage access and other problems that need to be resolved first. It is just not as easy as it seems. Actually even the thrice a week service is veritably teetering on the brink given the track conditions on Buckingham Branch RR.
 
I also heard a viscous rumor that the food on the trains isn't the same that was served 70 years ago.
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What can you do about the viscosity of rumors--especially those about 70-year-old food?
 
Shanghai said:
DET63 said:
I also heard a viscous rumor that the food on the trains isn't the same that was served 70 years ago.
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What can you do about the viscosity of rumors--especially those about 70-year-old food?
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That's not too bad, in China one can buy one thousand old eggs!!
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That would probably make a very expensive rotten Omelet :p
 
jis said:
Shanghai said:
DET63 said:
I also heard a viscous rumor that the food on the trains isn't the same that was served 70 years ago.
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What can you do about the viscosity of rumors--especially those about 70-year-old food?
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That's not too bad, in China one can buy one thousand old eggs!!
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That would probably make a very expensive rotten Omelet :p
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Check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg

Actually the eggs are not that old, maybe even newer then some of the products served on Amtrak, ie candy and snack foods.
 
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