Passenger Trains > Amtrak 50 of the 10th

Nearly 4 hours late out of Chicago. I see 51 was just over two hours late. Did it really take over 8 hours to turn and service 7 cars and 1 engine? Come on.

Seth-

With the loss of the Hoosier State and support for Chicago to Indy rail service, this seems the perfect time to take a look at the Cardinal's schedule. The Cardinal's schedule was largely dictated by the Hoosier's schedule, but now that this train is no longer being funded Amtram needs to look at what markets would best fill its train. Get rid of the padding at Indy and figure out if Cincy is a better market and for times to be improved here for the Cardinal. Off-topic, but Amtrak should also be looking at the eastbound Lake Shore Limited for the Fall. The "cleanup" trains used to operate at 8:30 pm and 9:00 pm in the 1990s. If the train is to be held for connecting passengers - then hold it and let it depart later. But if 75% of the connecting trains are in by 9:00 pm within a month - why not back the Lake Shore's schedule up. The late arrival time into NYP and BOS eastbound is awful. 

jp1822 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> With the loss of the Hoosier State and support for
> Chicago to Indy rail service, this seems the
> perfect time to take a look at the Cardinal's
> schedule. The Cardinal's schedule was largely
> dictated by the Hoosier's schedule, but now that
> this train is no longer being funded Amtram needs
> to look at what markets would best fill its train.
> Get rid of the padding at Indy and figure out if
> Cincy is a better market and for times to be
> improved here for the Cardinal. Off-topic, but
> Amtrak should also be looking at the eastbound
> Lake Shore Limited for the Fall. The "cleanup"
> trains used to operate at 8:30 pm and 9:00 pm in
> the 1990s. If the train is to be held for
> connecting passengers - then hold it and let it
> depart later. But if 75% of the connecting trains
> are in by 9:00 pm within a month - why not back
> the Lake Shore's schedule up. The late arrival
> time into NYP and BOS eastbound is awful. 

One poster is claiming that tonight’s Cardinal delay was due to forgetting to add the Beech Grove shop cars to the train. If so heads should roll. And at any rate how could it take nearly 4 hours to accomplish this?

As for the schedule Cincinnati is pretty much stuck as is. The Cardinal can’t leave New York any earlier. So the only option to fix Cincinnati times would be leave New York 5 hours later. That doesn’t work because you then risk Chicago connections and there’s not nearly enough time to turn and service the train. Plus how much market do you think there is there? The running time from Cincy to Chicago is far too slow to attract decent patronage. Indy to Chicago is sad too but still sellable. You can’t cut the dwell at Indy either now that they have to pick up the shop cars there.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/19 22:11 by alan2955.