The Cardinal to CHI/Cap Limited-NER to NYP

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Shawn Ryu

Conductor
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Jul 26, 2010
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Its been a very long time since I did long distance Amtrak journey. Last being about 2 years ago. I usually take low cast airline carriers back and forth from New York to Chicago and vice versa. But this year I decided to take trains like any intelligent human beings would. In case anyone wonders it was all coach trip.

First of all, I booked a trip in advance and one way to Chicago cost me $97 on the Cardinal. It was very cheap for me. I usually have to pay more to fly uncomfortably. Amtrak coach is very comfortable to travel on actually. At least on long distance trains anyway.

Arrived at Penn station around 3 in the morning. Waiting for train to depart 6:45 AM. there were a lot of bums around. But also there were quite a few travelers waiting to get on a early morning trains. Waited at the Amtrak waiting area, and used my cell to go online while waiting. Amtrak wifi rules.

Finally, at 6:35 or so, I boarded the Cardinal. Left at the scheduled time to Chicago. Nothing uneventful happened until lunch time. No breakfast was served on the train for some reason. Met some interesting people at lunch table. As usual. Met a really interesting guy from Wisconsin at dinner telling me about the days of incredibly corrupt Chicago government and the days when the Outfit ran wild. Some quite interesting stories to say the least. Kept me in diners car seat hours after I was done with my vegetarian pasta. Also met some group of guys drinking wines, 2 guys from Viriginia and one guy in his twenties from South Carolina. describing himself as a redneck. Interesting fellow. talked for hours, the four of us, about favorite drinks and smokes. And food. Fun times.

Got to Ashland around 11:45 EST and met a good kid from there who sat next to me. Good kid in HS going to see his GF in college in Chicago.

Clocks changed to CST once we entered Indiana. Got up from sleeping at my seat around 5 CST when we were I think Lafayette Indiana. Went to the cafe car and sat with the dude from the night before. Had fascinating chat abiut Indiana. The guy doesnt seem to like the state. Interesting guy, construction business, and travelled all over. going to Hawaii via Empire Builder and SEA airport.

Arrived at Chicago around 10 AM.

Will post CL story soon.
 
Glad you enjoyed the Coach ride on the Cardinal! :cool: Lots of us like to criticize this Train and LD Coach rides on Amfleets, but any such ride is better than a Coach seat on a Cattle Hauler, er Airline!As with most Train rides, you got to meet Interesting People! :cool: Curious that No Breakfast was served between NYP and WAS, did they say why???
 
Interesting trip. Other than that first breakfast, did you eat all meals on the Cardinal in the dining car, or did you bring your own food/eat out of the cafe car? I'm curious because in my Cardinal EB coach run a couple weeks ago, they seemed to barely have enough meals for the sleepers, and they didn't seem to be in the mood to serve coach passengers. I wonder if this was what happened for breakfast on your run - did they do any meal announcements for the other meals, or was it just a free-for-all?

Personally, I have to say I've developed a strong preference for the Superliner trains - the SSL really makes a big difference on runs of any significant length (and even short runs - I really enjoyed it in the morning on the CL EB). The Cardinal was actually my first (and only, so far) LD trip in single-level coach (I've done the LSL WB twice, but both times in a Viewliner roomette). However, the Card (and the other single-level LD runs) do have some good scenery, and are worth experiencing (I think my trip would have been better if they actually had reasonably-good meal service).
 
I generally eat all the meals on Amtrak at diners car. I tend to think that the money I spend goes on to help support Amtrak.

The food on the Cardinals is bad but I love Amtrak meals on other services generally. The snack items are made by other companies so they are what they are.

Cards absolutely has great scenery. But a lot of Amtrak long distance trains do too. Maybe perhaps not Silver services.
 
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Part Deux- Chicago to NYC via Capitol Limited and Northeast Regional

Got aboard the Capital Limited at about 6 in the evening. Left Chicago about 10 minutes after that.

Got to South Bend I think around 40 minutes after leaving Chicago. Could be an hour. My memory is going fuzzy.

Between Chicago and 8:30PM when I had dinner I was talking to this very relaxed African American older gentleman who lives in Philly. Great guy. Very calm, and his philosophy is just let everyone be, and dont let anger get to ya. Interesting man to say the least.

Dinner time, had crab cake. Very good, but very expensive to say the least. Met a guy who bought his own rail car to use. Hes gonna keep in in Oakland and pay Amtrak to take care of it and tag along Amtrak services to go anywhere on his private car. Had a good chat about Chicago and history and all that. Had a good time. time just flew by.

After that I headed to the lounge car and hung out with some cool people. Talked for hours until we got to Cleveland or so, which was 2 or 3 hours after I finished dinner. 4 of us got off for a smoke stop and one of the girl and I shared a smoke (not cigarettes, lets just leave it at that). Went back in, kept chatting about things like travelling on freight trains (yea one of the guy actually did that, interesting) and alternatives to going to college.

Went to bed at around 3 in the morning. Bed being one of the couch in the lounge car. Woke up at 5, by a conductor asking me if I was getting off at Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh was at 4 AM.

Went back to sleep, got up at 6. Had breakfast at 7. Had breakfast with a couple and a old lady going from Arizona to DC to see her grandkids. Not much chat but nice people.

Watched scenery and shared candies with strangers for the rest of the trip, and finally arrived at DC around 12. Fun trip. First time on Cap Limited. Favorite out of all 3 Chicago to East coast routes.

NER was just that. Not much to talk about there. Not much socializations goes on those very business centric trains. It was more corwded than I was used to since I never took NER during rush hour before (left DC at 5 PM that day). Got to NYC around 8.
 
Glad to see you enjoyed the Capitol Limited trip. Having rode all three CHI-East Coast LD routes, I will say that the CL is also my favorite. It has the Superliners/Sightseer Lounge, some great scenery between Pittsburgh and Washington (though perhaps not as good as the Card, the SSL makes it more enjoyable), and a nice schedule. Leaving in the evening (from CHI, or in my case TOL) and getting into WAS in the early afternoon is pretty nice, particularly compared with the later arrivals (and later departures in the case of the LSL) of the other eastbound LD routes. As such, I'd probably recommend it to anyone looking for their first LD trip (it was my first). I'm hoping to ride it again - shooting for next month...
 
Yea, Superliners are always better for long distance journey. Will try to take mostly Cap Limited now. The journey is kinda short though.
 
Yeah, the CL is kind of short - though in comparison with the LSL (particularly the NYP section) it's not that much shorter. That is not necessarily a total disadvantage, though - it's shorter distance makes it viable for a long weekend trip. The Cardinal is obviously longer, but that is because of its circuitous route (which is really designed more for trips from IND/CIN and WV to either CHI or WAS/NYP and not through trips).

I'd even say for trips to NYP or BOS that the CL+Regional combination is superior to the LSL, particularly going eastbound (honestly, I don't see a huge difference between being on a Regional and a single-level LD coach, and I liked the fast-moving ride up the NEC).
 
They used to run the Card with Superliners - however, they apparently decided the advantage of using Superliners was not enough to outweigh the disadvantage of not going through past WAS to NYP and intermediate destinations.
 
I have taken the Cardinal from NYP to IND on several trips.

We were served breakfast around Trenton, NJ. Maybe breakfast

is offered only to sleeper passengers.
 
I asked, the attendant said no breakfast will be served.You'd think if they could they would serve food to people willing to pay decent chunk of money.
 
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