Passenger Trains > Cardinal Trip Report

For those who may be interested, road 51 Cincinnati-Chicago Thursday and 50 back Saturday to attend the Amtrak town hall meeting in Chicago. Aside from having to work around the Cardinal's schedule and go up a day earlier than planed, the overall trip was a B-.

Was called by Amtrak customer service Wednesday night and informed that my sleeper had been bad ordered and I was being downgraded to coach. She was apologetic and very professional. Consist 3 coaches, lounge, and crippled sleeper. Left CUT 20 minutes late at 130am and tiptoed around the CSX derailment at Hamilton. Lost about 15 more minutes into Indy, but left on time due to the enormous fat in Indy. A meet with a southbound NS train on CSX's Monon line at Linden (between Crawfordsville and Lafayette) cost about 15 minutes. Train peaked at about 75% full out of Renesselear. A few slow orders had us about 30 minutes late at Dyer, and waiting for traffic at Dolton and 21st street cost us more time. But with all the padding, we arrived only about 8 minutes late. The coaches seemed in working order and the crew kept us informed every time we stopped more than a minute or two. Crew B, food C, timekeeping C, equipment B, other than my sleeper. Very sloppy run for reasons beyond Amtrak's control. There is about 3+ hours fat in the northbound schedule, including the 1:46 minutes in Indianapolis. Several passengers were griping about the fact they could drive to Chicago and back in the time to took the train to get to Chicago. True, but they could have read a schedule and seen how long the train took.

Amtrak customer service again rang me up after arrival in Chicago. Again a different lady apologized for the inconvenience and offered to send me a service voucher for future travel. While this particular scenario has never happened to me on Amtrak, the way it was handled was top notch and I told the Amtrak rep I was 110% satisfied with how it was handled (she asked me if I felt it was handled correctly). I have never been treated this well by Amtrak before over a problem.

Return trip had room 4. Three coaches, lounge, two sleepers. One sleeper was not being sold, but seemed to be used by the crew as a dorm (sleepers were shown as sold out). 12 minutes early into Dyer, 5 minutes early into Lafayette, 5 minutes early into Cincinnati. Train peaked at about 75% full out of Chicago. DinerLite food C+, crew B+, equipment A, timekeeping A+ Since I became a frequent Amtrak rider in the mid-90s, the crews have gotten MUCH better than in the past.

Town Hall Cardinal related stuff, the Cardinal, along with the Sunset and CZ are being reviewed this year for possible improvements, including DAILY operation and scheduling review. The Cardinal has the lowest CSI score (65) of any Amtrak train other than the Sunset Limited. The vibe Amtrak crews have are that Amtrak does want to restore Superliners to the train when possible. Not mentioned in the Town Hall thing but widely spoken of by the crews, Amtrak wants to reroute the train from Dyer to Chicago via an all CN route to streamline operations and eliminate the current Amtrak-NS-Metra-NS-Belt RR-UP-CN-CSX routing. The CN routing via Harvey would be about the same running time, but much more reliable. If Grand Xing were funded and two power turnouts at Harvey, the running time wound be reduced to around 35 minutes.

I thought the Amtrak folks there were very knowledgeable about what was wrong (and right) with Amtrak. The fact that they requested Trains Mag to do this meeting and stand in front of us for 7 hours is something no other Amtrak admin has ever done, and may not do again. I think Amtrak wanted more of a constructive dialog, what they got seemed to be more of a bunch of foamers asking some rather repetitive and foamer type questions.

Thanks for the report. I was afraid foamers may be on hand. Wonder where they got a second sleeper??

What is a CSI score?

Guaranteed the 2nd sleeper was the original bad ordered sleeper going back to New York for repairs.

P Wrote:
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> What is a CSI score?

Customer Satisfaction Index

It's interesting that the supposed 2 lowest scores are the try-weakly trains. Only running 3 days a week could put someone in a bad mood before they even get on the train. If they had to delay thier travels 1 or 2 days, I suppose I would be in a bad mood myself. In the past, I have often chosen other, less desirable options for my travels rather than wait a day or 2, but not everyone has the option to do that.
Would be great to have a daily option.

Well I am riding 50 the first week in June and planned my trip's timing so that I could ride it back home. Going out on 29. This is a good report of what I can expect. Hope they don't bad order my sleeper. Its a long ride from Chicago to Charlottesville.

Sharon Evans
Glen Allen, VA

The Capitol Ltd does not a great CSI score, though I don't know what it is. I think it is because 75% of the passenges in the 3rd S-L coach are Pennsylvanian refugees and not in a good mood in either direction.

I read on the other thread someone asked about a restored Bway Ltd, rather than something pragmatic like thru cars from the Pennsylvanian to Chicago. No doubt Amtrak mgmt considered it to be a Foamer Forum.

Also forgot to add that Amtrak does want to restore checked baggage to the train asap. Baggage has become a safety issue in the peak travel times, with bags piled high in the vestibules and coaches. On the Capitol, I was surprised no one asked about the possibility of thru cars off the Cap to the Pennsylvanian.

Number one customer cause of dissatisfaction.. late trains. CARDINAl has lots of late days. Also, did not run much of December. Would be hard to imaging the diner-lite getting good marks. Say you transfer from EMPIRE BUILDER to Cardinal. Is this the same railroad?? tables do not align to windows. Across the next booth may be piled supplies, even garbage bags.
A baggage car would be a delight. Think the idea of new baggage cars being part crew dorm is fantastic. Bike racks please.
Baggage cars. Just a big box. Modular rooms for crews should be available like Roomette on SUPERLINERS. I would think 10 rooms for even the most crewed up trains.
Another cause of dissatisfaction... conductors in diner taking 2 tables with radio on loud all day.

I use the Hoosier State as possible when I travel to Chicago. It is almost always OT out of Indy.