Texas Eagle - Cardinal connection

I'm supposed to be connecting from the Texas Eagle to the Cardinal on the 21st. What happens if this guaranteed connection is missed? Would Amtrak pay for a rental car or bus fare back to Kentucky? Putting up in hotel til next train wouldn't work since the next Cardinal is not for three days.

If the Eagle is very very late at STL they might bus you to IND. There are other options available up the line. You have just under 4 hours between trains in Chicago, so the TE generally doesn't loose too much between STL and CHI. I think you will be fine even if the TE departs STL an hour or so late.

No. Amtrak won't pay for a car rental back to Kentucky.

But they may pay for a bus.

If the TE is not to late they may hold the Cardinal for connecting TE passengers.

https://www.amtrak.com/at-the-station.html

In the case of a missed guaranteed connection, Amtrak will provide alternate transportation on Amtrak, another carrier, or overnight hotel accommodations, at Amtrak's discretion.

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Lonestar648 said:

If the Eagle is very very late at STL they might bus you to IND. There are other options available up the line. You have just under 4 hours between trains in Chicago, so the TE generally doesn't loose too much between STL and CHI. I think you will be fine even if the TE departs STL an hour or so late.

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The connection statistics are very positive - 96% OK since Feb 1.

Link: https://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/connections.php?a_train_num=22&c_train_num=50&station=chi&date_start=02%2F01%2F2018&date_end=04%2F10%2F2018&df1=1&df2=1&df3=1&df4=1&df5=1&df6=1&df7=1&buffer_mins=5&sort_dir=DESC&dfon=1

As was said,stuff may happen to any train to cause delays, but the odds are very good to make this connection.

The only time I was bustituted making this connection was from Bloomington/Normal to Indy to catch the Card.There is a daily Thruway Bus that runs from Galesburg to Indy.

A couple of years ago, I was arriving at CHI on #6 and we were running about 5 hours late account a boulder-slide in Colorado that messed up the track a bit. They bused (actually, a 30-seater oversize airport van, in my opinion) to IND to meet the Cardinal. We got there about an hour ahead of time, including the 1 hr stop enroute for dinner (on our own) at a cluster of fast-food places at a freeway exit in Illinois. That's the good news...

About a year ago, I was on the Cardinal leaving Chicago exactly on time. We weren't past Roosevelt Rd and in comes a several hours late #4 or #6, I don't recall which. The other one of the two came in about 20 minutes later, according to the Amtrak web site. I felt bad for the connecting passengers. From my perspective, Chicago is more concerned about 'on time' than 'passenger service'. 'On time' is easily measured, 'passenger service', not so easily measured. I stopped flying Continental Airlines 15-16 years ago because of the same problem...not holding a the last plane of the day to my destination for a lousy 15 minutes or so, and they refused to put me up for the night.

By Amtrak standards, a 4% missed connection rate from a western train is pretty much perfect. You should be all set.