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  • Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

 #61472  by Gilbert B Norman
 
The current NRPC Form T1 is simply titled Amtrak System timetable, and will expire this coming October 31.

Possibly, Mr. F40, some party is printing an unofficail timetable; but I cannot imagine why.

 #61616  by capltd29
 
According to the New timetable, the Cardinal has NO checked baggage service.

 #61623  by RMadisonWI
 
It's really sad how the Cardinal's service has deteriorated compared to just a year ago.

In February, Amtrak announced service cuts due to "winter weather-related problems" with its fleet. This included the loss of dining car service on the Cardinal, plus the crew dorm car and baggage car.

It's now October. Kinda long for "winter weather" to be causing problems. Something's definitely not right, here. I am convinced that Amtrak was not completely truthful in the excuses used to cut service over the winter (just as I'm not convinced that Amtrak is being truthful in its reasons for cutting the Three Rivers).

Robert Madison
 #61686  by jp1822
 
And despite the removal of the Heritage Diners from the Cardinal (at least two), they still can't find a spare to supply the Lake Shore Limited (one trainset running with a dinette). Guess the diners are just sitting in the bad order line at Beech Grove. Would be nice to get them fixed. Course, I am still disappointed they can't return the Cardinal to a Superliner trainset.

There are long stretches to endure on the Cardinal in the absence of a full service diner.

Yeah the "2003/2004 winter cuts" have evolved into "permanent cuts." The Viewliner situation is also disappointing (i.e. still no Viewliner on the Federal). Funny how when Warrington pulled the Viewliner off of this train (then the Twilight Shoreliner), there was outrage and the Viewliner was returned to operation. But when Gunn does it, with perhaps a justifiable reason at the time, it is not given second thought nearly a year later. I would have thought one solution was a run-through of the Lake Shore Limited Boston Viewliner with the Federal. Oh well for that - now that the Boston Lake Shore Viewliner is going bye-bye.

 #61713  by RMadisonWI
 
Actually, the Twilight Shoreliner lost its Viewliner under Stan Bagley, sort of as a cascading effect of the equipment shortage exacerbated by the Auto Train derailment (unless there was another period that the Shoreliner lost its sleeper). Ironically, the sleeper was returned a month later, under David Gunn.

 #61743  by updrumcorpsguy
 
RMadisonWI wrote: I am convinced that Amtrak was not completely truthful in the excuses used to cut service over the winter (just as I'm not convinced that Amtrak is being truthful in its reasons for cutting the Three Rivers).
As someone fairly new to this forum, it's not suprising at all - Gunn said that unless they got the 1.7 Billion, the "state of good repair" plan would not be able to move forward fully. They got 1.2 billion - do the math and figure it out.

Like it or not, the system is being downsized to a system that can work given the money they have to work with. It's not Gunn's fault - it's the fault of a Congress that is so disfunctional that it can't even pass next year's budget (which may actually be good for Amtrak, as it keeps things going at the 1.2 billion dollar budget - more than what the Bush Administration has proposed)

You get what you pay for - in Amtrak's case at least - and Gunn is holding them to that. It may not be popular among railfans, or the traveling public, but that's how the chips are stacked. Until we get some real leadership (and I'm not saying that in a partisan way - there's plenty of blame to go around in this mess.) things will stay like this. The sad thing for the country is that Amtrak's a small fish in a big pond - and the whole pond is starting to suffer.

Maybe Gunn was right when he said Amtrak is the canary in the coal mine - but not just about railroads.

 #61971  by AmtrakFan
 
I must wonder how can the most properous country in the world can't properly fund it's Passenger Rail service. Passenger Rail is important to the economy of this nation. I say that Mr. Gunn needs to shut down the NEC first to prove that he is serious about getting the needed funding.

Further, I believe Mr. Gunn is doing a good job with what he has to work with. Additional thoughts I hold are that having the Viewliner on the Federal was a waste of $$$$ and, further, why can't Amtrak use the Viewliners being removed from The Three Rivers to make a Daily Cardinal?

AmtrakFan
 #62059  by cbaker
 
The Cardinal will indeed offer checked baggage service into the fall/winter schedule. The decision was made too late to include in the Amtrak System Timetable.
 #62223  by AmtrakFan
 
cbaker wrote:The Cardinal will indeed offer checked baggage service into the fall/winter schedule. The decision was made too late to include in the Amtrak System Timetable.
Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mr. Baker also lets get back on topic.

AmtrakFan

 #62228  by capltd29
 
I heard that a few new Superliners were rolling out of the shops at Beech Grove. Maybe they could cut back the Cardinal to DC and return it to Superliners.
 #63926  by newpassenger
 
I can't speak for all Cardinal runs but . . . on my Sept trip there was a baggage car on the run to Chicago but . . . they stored all the luggage in the "accessible" sleeper on the return trip.

Kim

 #63952  by AmtrakFan
 
capltd29 wrote:I heard that a few new Superliners were rolling out of the shops at Beech Grove. Maybe they could cut back the Cardinal to DC and return it to Superliners.
Won't happen anytime soon but would be nice also do you know what numbers they will be?

AmtrakFan

 #63989  by Amtrak288
 
I certainly hope things improve for the Cardinal, I rode Train #50 back in September on my last trip (I'm still scanning all the slides and a full travelogue will be online soon), I'll make a long story short by saying, we left Chicago late due to our crew not being rested in time, we had a drunk passenger who nearly got booted off the train in Indy but was allowed to continue riding to his stop in Charleston, WV, and the kicker: We had 3 Amfleet II Coaches on this train, only two of them were open, and the two that were open had no AC outlets! The third coach had AC outlets, but for course, was "closed and used for the crew only", and we had the wrong cafe car on the train, it was an Amfleet II with a smoking lounge on one end, first off, if you weren't a sleeper passenger, then you couldn't eat in that car during meal times, nor could you even sit in the car! It's as if coach passengers didn't matter! Also, for coach passengers, that cafe car had AC outlets but again, during meal times, if you ain't a sleeper passenger, you're outta here! Truthfully, I don't complain about problems with Amtrak but this was absolutely unacceptable, there were several passengers complaining during the ride about the AC Outlet problem as well as the service. On a much happier note, the rest of the trip and the other 6 trains I rode were great!

Geno Dailey's Amtrak Photo Archive
http://www.trainweb.org/amtrakpix

 #64441  by newpassenger
 
Amtrak288,

When in Sept were you on the Cardinal out of CHI . . . I was too!! We left late and had a strange setup with the dinning car too. This was our return trip after visiting my husband in WI. and it sure wasn't as organized or pleasant as the beginning of the journey.

Kim

 #64589  by Amtrak288
 
Kim, I was on the Cardinal on Tuesday, September 28th, I boarded in Chicago and rode to DC. One interesting quote that came from one of the Usher's in Chicago Union Station before we boarded the train: "Please do not leave any luggage unattended on the platforms or it will be confiscated by a member of the Amtrak Police or a thief, whichever comes first."

I will have a complete travelogue on my site whenever I can get enough time to finish scanning all the slides I took on the trip!

Geno Dailey's Amtrak Photo Archive
http://www.trainweb.org/amtrakpix
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