Bye Bye K-Card???

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Amfleet

Engineer
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Aug 24, 2002
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Southeastern, Massachusetts
I've been recieving some messages through my Amtrak yahoo groups stating the K-Card will end Dec. 29. :blink:

From An Unidentifed Amtrak Employee:
"The word is out the last run of the Kentucky Cardinal will be

December 29 2002. The last mail cars were handled October 16, 2002.

The Kentucky Indiana Rail Advocates needs your help in our battle

Donations to the fight will be accepted at KIRA Post Office Box 17091

Louisville, Kentucky 40217.

A protest rally is scheduled for 300 pm Sunday November 3 at

Louisville Union Station.

We are ready to fight to retain our service."
 
Well we surely would be sorry to see any train go. This train, however, has been arriving at Louisville Union Station sometimes with more crew members than passengers. The city of Louisville fought hard and successfully to get the train extended beyond Jeffersonville, IN (of all places!). Jeffersonville was the original endpoint because that is where the facility (UPS or USPS, not sure) was that gave the train its express contract.

The extension into downtown Louisville, while only 5 more miles, was considered to be the precursor to bigger and better things. Nashville loomed next down the line, a run of several hours on relatively good CSX track (an oxymoron there?). The run could have been done using the existing equipment, which just ties up for the day in the Louisville/Jeffersonville area. And advocates beyond Nashville saw Alabama, and eventually Florida, in their sights as well.

Taking this away would only make it more difficult to reinstate it, and to get those incremental extensions made so that Chicago and the Southeast can be served on a one-seat ride.

The Kentucky Cardinal has certainly gotten poor treatment in its relatively short life. Its sleeper has been yanked away, put back, and yanked away again, sort of like taunting a toddler with his favorite toy. So how they could do business with the public not knowing whether the train would be carrying a sleeper is beyond me. The train started out with Superliner equipment, and the Superliner sleeper was borrowed in the summer to be used as a short-turn sleeper on the California Zephyr between Chicago and Denver. Its other cars were routinely borrowed for other trains.

There were reports of the train arriving in Louisville with two engines and a coach, or two engines and a sleeper (the express cars having been left at Jeffersonville). Seems pretty overpowered for one car, but think that even the one car was not filled up. And whatever coach passengers there might have been got a free upgrade since there was at times only a sleeper available for them. Likewise, sleeper passengers, if booked as such would have been downgraded to the only car on the train, a coach.

Then the train was downgraded to single-level equipment, This followed the Auto Train and Capitol Limited wrecks, which required the reassignment of all Superliner equipment from the Cardinal and Kentucky Cardinal pool to other trains. The train was originally supposed to have one Viewliner sleeper, but again that was yanked away when the parent Cardinal also needed to fill out its new look.

That all said, there is a 180-day rule that notice has to be given for a route discontinuance. If this train were ending on December 29th, notice would have had to be given by the end of this past June. Perhaps they will start the notice on 12/29 and end the train next June? And if all that happens, look for them to treat this unwanted stepchild even worse. Remember when they were killing the Lake Country Limited in Wisconsin? Six months of Saturday-only service, and in the wrong direction whereby even railfans could not possibly patronize the train unless they lived in Janesville.

So, it would be a shame to lose this train, but judging by the passenger counts, the weakest link had to go first. I feel bad for those who fought to get the train extended from Indianapolis to Jeffersonville, and then the people of Louisville who fixed up their station (it had long been converted into a bus garage) to once again accomodate trains. I feel it probably will survive between Chicago and Indianapolis, only because Amtrak needs to have that funeral train running to ferry bad-ordered and wreck-damaged equipment to Beech Grove.

Funeral train? "Hospital Train" would indicate that the patient is being attended to and repaired. Beech Grove has unfortunately become a final resting place for Amtrak equipment since nobody is fixing it. But that is another story.
 
I'd be sorry to see it go, but as Alan said maybe the train could be run during the day as it has no sleeper or diner. Once we had the equipment, this could've been the next Floridian.
 
Amfleet said:
The day train would be a good move in my opinion. However, I think much track work would be needed to increase speeds and make for a smoother ride. B)
OK, but you might lose whatever savings you get from combining the Kentucky Cardinal with the Cardinal 3 days a week between Indianapolis and Chicago. The upside would be a second frequency on that segment of the route.
 
Amfleet said:
There are no savings with combining the K-Card with the Card. Since the locomotive on the K-Card is just putup front.
Actually that's not true. There is a big savings in that you don't need two crews to run the combined train. That means one less engineer and two less conductors.

By the way are you sure that they run the extra engine at the front of the combined consist. I would think that they would just leave the extra engine at Indianapolis, and attach the extra cars to the Cardinal's consist.
 
187   P-42 locomotive (to Louisville) 150   P-42 locomotive (to Washington)

1218   Baggage

1XXX   Material Handling Car

1XXX   Material Handling Car

62XXX   Viewliner sleeper

8527   Heritage diner

28307   Amfleet I cafe/lounge

25088   Amfleet II coach (We sat here)

25021   Amfleet II coach

25054   Amfleet II coach (unoccupied out of CHI)

25106   Amfleet II coach (Louisville coach)
According to this consist from an OTOL trip report the Louisville locomotive is put on the train, but I do see your point about the crews. Still I think a day train would make up for it. B)
 
Amfleet said:
187   P-42 locomotive (to Louisville) 150   P-42 locomotive (to Washington)

1218   Baggage

1XXX   Material Handling Car

1XXX   Material Handling Car

62XXX   Viewliner sleeper

8527   Heritage diner

28307   Amfleet I cafe/lounge

25088   Amfleet II coach (We sat here)

25021   Amfleet II coach

25054   Amfleet II coach (unoccupied out of CHI)

25106   Amfleet II coach (Louisville coach)
According to this consist from an OTOL trip report the Louisville locomotive is put on the train, but I do see your point about the crews. Still I think a day train would make up for it. B)
Wow, that consist looks awfully, awfully familiar. :B): This was the combined 50/850 out of Chicago, on June 25, 2002. Gotta admit the guys on this board are on the ball!! I'll never forget that 26-hour marathon on that trip (4 hours late into Alexandria). As you see, only one or two cars went to Louisville. The one left unoccupied could have been a hospital car going to the Grove. Not sure, because I was on the regular Cardinal headed for Virginia.

There's other power kept in the Indianapolis area -- because you need something not only to move equipment around Beech Grove, but to move it to and from the trains at Indy Union Station.
 
Thank God, on both the Express front and the K-Card. The train is a waste of valuable equipment that could be better utilized elsewhere. Those coaches could really be used down here on Silver Service, we are frequently running at capacity out of Florence or Rocky Mount.
 
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