The Cardinal is here to stay. It is the only Amtrak Train with a Congressional Mandate. In other words, it would take an act of Congress to cancel the train.
Unfortunately acts of Nature superseded acts of Congress, even though the Congresscritters may not think so. It won't take anything more than a good storm to potentially temporarily suspend it for ever, Congress or no Congress, unless of course Congress actually specifically decides to fund the restoration of operation - haven't we heard this story somewhere before?
And you and I both know exactly what today's Congress will do about it. So let us not get overly sanguine about the invincibility of the Cardinal. No, I am not suggesting that anyone is about to do this. All that I am saying is that the special Congressional mandate effectively is a fantasy, specially when the railroad on which it runs itself is teetering on the brink (Buckingham Branch)
Seconded (with an *; see below). Nothing is certain, especially when it comes to Amtrak trains. As I understand it (and I may be mistaken/misinformed), the Cardinal is NOT operating under a "Congressional Mandate." I've searched, and I've found no such animal. And it would not take an "Act of Congress" to cancel the train. What everyone seems to always refer to is an earmark that Senator Byrd threw in YEARS ago to bring the service back after a hiatus. As far as I know, those earmarked funds no longer directly pay for the Cardinal or they expired, but it would have been a political nightmare to go and cancel the train years later with Byrd still in office. Now that Byrd's gone, I don't know what the repercussions would be if the train were to suddenly become annulled after a natural disaster or similar incident. The most recent test we had was when the CSX bridge went out east of Indianapolis a few weeks ago. Amtrak, to its credit, ran the Cardinal as a stub train between Cincy and New York, and ran a daily Hoosier State between Chicago and Indy, with no service between Indy and Cincy. They could have just as easily annulled service entirely, I suppose; that they did not is encouraging.
The only thing I would hold exception to is suggesting that the Buckingham Branch is teetering on the brink. They are a profitable company, they have a great reputation as a community-friendly enterprise, and they are very friendly to rail fans and non rail fans alike. They have always granted Amtrak passage for special detours when requested, and they run a tight ship. They are a short line, however, and the track condition mirrors that status, especially between Gordonsville and Orange. But when you realize that Amtrak's equipment is just about the only rolling stock that plies those particular rails three times a week, you can hardly blame BBRR for not doing more than basic preventive maintenance on that stretch. From Gordonsville to Charlottesville, and especially from Charlottesville to Staunton, the BBRR track is in pretty decent shape (considering it's mostly jointed). Really, the only big shortcoming of the BBRR from a reliability standpoint is its signal system, which is in the midst of a major upgrade. Parts of that signal system haven't been touched since the C&O days, and when it rains, everything goes nuts. Thankfully, that's quickly changing and associated delays will drop in kind. BBRR gets a bad, undeserved rap sometimes, so that's why I'm quick to defend them. They host Amtrak at what is essentially a break-even deal for them, and they are glad to do it, partially for the benefit of passenger rail, which is something in which they believe and support. If the state of Virginia wants to kick in money to upgrade the slow stretches that the BBRR rarely uses (but that Amtrak trains use/would use), they're happy to maintain it for the higher speeds. Such discussions and proposals are kicked around all of the time (i.e. speeding up Gordonsville to Orange, or upgrading Gordonsville to Doswell for Richmond service), but nothing's come to fruition yet (save the signal upgrade project, which I believe is partially state-funded).
Rafi
