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My sister, on her first ever train trip, took a fuzzy photo of the platform at Rennselaer, IN from the Cardinal Monday morning. In the photo it looks like a rectangular area about the size of an improved Amtrak waiting shelter has been excavated.
Can anyone here confirm or provide additional information about an improved passenger train facility underway in Rennselaer, IN? This is, admittedly, one of the last places I would have imagined such a project being underway.
So........ why was my sister who was born about the same time David P. Morgan first asked "Who Shot the Passenger Train?" - making her first train trip?
Transportation Neccessity - My sister and her daughter needed to attend a training and certification course offered only at Iowa State University this week**. The best available roundtrip airfare to Des Moines from anywhere in the southeast even a month ago came in at about $1,100.00. That, in addition to hotel, meals, and rental car was more than my sister was willing to spend.
She called me and asked if it were possible to take the train to Iowa, how long would it take, and could it be done for under $600.00. I was absolutely amazed that her travel dates aligned with the Cardinal's schedule in both directions and suggested that they catch the train from Prince, WV (a 200 mile drive for us but one that reduces rail travel sans airplane to the midwest to an agreeable one-night adventure).
Ultimately the itinerary called for the Cardinal roundtrip to Chicago, Metra to the Aurora Rt. 59 station with adjacent Enterprise Agency, and a nice drive into the setting sun along interstate 80 from Aurora. They would have taken the California Zephyr on to Ottumwa had there been a rental car agency willing to meet #5 with a vehicle Monday evening.......
Still - what was hammered out was acceptable and they saved more than $500 by taking the train. Return trip commences today and my sister is armed with explicit instructions for finding the Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago Union Station.
** The PS for anyone wondering why my sister needed to go to Iowa State and why she was totally unfazed by the prospect of driving 200 miles on either end to save some money by taking the train for the first time ever. My sister is a vetrinarian with a thriving practice who about three years ago found a new niche. On weekends she operates a 'Mobile Equine Lab' driving a second-hand ambulance to horse sales across North Carolina doing on-site blood testing required before a horse can be sold. She is bringing her oldest daughter into the 'MEL' business as a lab technician but first needed to take her new assistant for training and certification - offered only at the vetrinary school at Iowa State.
Could my sister have gone the extra fare for flying? Yeah, probably. But here before her was a new adventure (which an overnight ride on the Cardinal - in the same sense that is a camping trip - certainly is) and the opportunity to save $500.00 was merely bonus.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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David, I know you said your sister's veterinary practice is thriving, but if she's ever looking for a change of venue, she would never go hungry here in Ocala, the "horse capital of the world."
Right now, there is a possible outbreak of EHV-1 at the "Horseshows in the Sun" nearby, but I think they've got it under control, and our two horses are safe. A "mobile Coggins tester" for EIA is a great idea, incidentally.
Posts: 1530 | From: Ocala, FL | Registered: Dec 2006
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Not sure if my sister is the 'Florida' kind of person though mobile Coggins testing is exactly what she is doing. I picked the two up at Prince Friday morning, delivered them home shortly before 3pm (following a gas and lunch stop), and by 3:30pm they were on their way to the Shelby, NC area to work a horse sale commencing at 6:00pm. I believe that my sister.....who has been in practice since 1985..... wishes to reach a point in the next few years of 'retiring' from her small animal practice while continuing to work with the horses, her real animal infatuation. Were she to leave North Carolina, I think it would be for Kentucky where we have relatives on my mother's side of the family.
This trip to Iowa was the first time she had ever crossed the Mississippi River at 'see level'. Her two previous trips across the river were accomplished by flying in and out of Des Moines.
Other than making the periodic required trips to Iowa and one group trip she went on to Europe, she is not much of a travel buff.
She did, however, really enjoy her first Amtrak trip. She agrees that sleeper is much better than coach (though even coach is much more pleasant than flying) and found the meals and ambiance of dining in the Amcafe surprisingly enjoyable. She even brought her plastic 'Amtrak' coffee cup from Friday breakfast home as a souvenier. Perhaps that she found the Cardinal's limited dining service acceptable was more of a surprise to me than to her.
Her experience was a good reminder for me as I have kind of shunned the Cardinal in recent years as not giving best value for my travel dollar or AGR points.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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Mr. Presley, sounds like it was Coach for your Sister and Niece on 51(?) and return Sleeper on 50(14). I further would guess her choice to rent for the drive on to Ames from Rte 59 (did you tell her to wave going by 18.34?) was either some kind of loyalty to Enterprise (the "insurance rental" company to me) or concern about driving in Chicago and as such forgoing use of the Hertz outlet adjacent to CUS.
Presume she has now had her last overnight in Coach.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Instructions to wave at Clarendon Hills were given and perhaps heeded.
The primary issue with the rental car was not one of loyalty to Enterprise but, rather, a desire to not drive a rental vehicle in downtown Chicago. The Rte. 59 station leaves a pretty straight shot to either I-88 or I-80 westbound and Enterprise happens to be the agency there.
To be honest, the rental would likely have occurred in Ottumwa, IA had there been a local agency there willing to meet #5 at 6:53pm.
Ultimately, the Aurora area worked out because of Metra's schedule frequency. #51 could arrive anywhere from on-time to 5 hours late and not blow the connection to the rental car.
Yes - they went coach on #51. The accomodation charges offered up were a $300 roomette westbound vs. a $175 roomette eastbound. I recommended roomette both ways or, at the very least, one way.
FWIW - neither my sister nor my neice have complained about their night in coach though I did overhear my sister in a phone conversation with a colleague admit "Roomette is much better though....." I would be surprised to see her book coach in the future although #51 was sufficiently uncrowded that they each had their own 'two-seater' through the night. Not until Lafayette, IN the following morning did they need to condense back into thier original two seats.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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