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On March 18th I departed the Bay Area on the Zephyr bound for a Cardinal connection in Chicago. The Zephyr trip was OK, despite the bus trip around the trestle problem. The Cardinal was a horror show, almost beyond belief.
My Zephyr was the first train to not detour via Marysville. We were bussed to Roseville and departed only a few minutes late. My bedroom E in a rebuilt Superliner I was in good shape, though 5 minutes with a wet wash cloth made the difference between 'broom clean' and clean. My only real complaint about these rooms is the new chair that has replaced the folding chair. The new chairs' support post is welded to the exterior wall and the chair is mounted such that the back of the seat bottom is higher than the front of the seat bottom. You can perch on the chair, but you can not sit there. I suspect a fixed chair is a safety mandate, but there is no excuse doing the job in a manner that negates the amenity.
The train left Roseville with food supply and refrigeration problems. Thus dinner every night was limited to baked chicken, chicken fried steak or a burger. Pizza was available at lunch. Breakfast had one choice, the continental. Coach passengers were asked to eat from the lounge. Even with two sleepers seemingly filled, the diner was never very crowded. Sadly low volume didn't lead to more carefully prepared food. My chicken two nights in a row was cold and dry, but I survived.
We averaged about 90 minutes late throughout the trip, which is pretty good for the Zephyr. The scenery is terrific and the redone lounges are a bit more comfortable than before. Certainly the blue decor is cheerier than the 1970s chocolate brown. The tops of the small tables in the lounge section were never washed in 3 days- every last one was sticky with soda.
We arrived Denver 90 minutes late, but left two hours late. Despite the hour the new conductor made a 10 to 12 minute welcoming announcement that seemed never-ending. If that had been his only sin, it would have gone without mention. At 6:00am prior to arriving in Omaha he got on the PA for another ten minutes of "myself welcomes you to Omaha . . ..". He had the PA on max because there was no escaping it, despite the fact the system was in the "off" position in my room.
There is something I love about travelling by train so I thoroughly enjoyed myself even considering the cold food with limited selection and harassment by a verbose conductor.
We arrived in Chicago at 5:46 and my connection to the Cardinal was at 5:45. I was quite happy to learn that the Cardinal's departure had been delayed until 6:00. This ride was going to mean that I have traveled on ALL Amtrak's long distance trains.
The Cardinal, in the vernacular, sucked. It could not have been worse. I have now experienced the twilight zone. The Viewliner sleeper must have been used in Bagdad recently; the newly rebuilt Amfleet II Diner/Lounge is an example of what you get when the mechanical department is given responsibility for design; the food was vile and the service worse; the track during the night was like riding on a roller coaster and caused the suspension to bottom out with a metal on metal 'smash' 'bang' 'boom'; and the coup de grace was riding from Huntington, WV to Charlottesville on a bus to get around a freight derailment.
The Viewliner sleeper was in its original livery and five years past the date it should have gone into the shops. This was my first time in a Viewliner Bedroom. Though I prefer their roomettes over Superliner roomettes, the Bedroom was awful. There is such a large expanse of unrelieved gray plastic that you feel like you are in a jail cell. The carpet was a virtual science experiment. The PA did not work. The curtains were hanging. The walls were filthy. The welded chair in this bedroom blocked the bathroom door from fully opening such that I (at 175# and a 33 waist) had to squeeze into the bathroom. One more pound and I would have had to walk back to coach. The sleeper was the first car after the engine, which meant I was within 50 ft. of the horn, which went off every three minutes. Between the suspension bottoming out and the horn, there was no sleep.
The brand spanking new Amfleet II Diner Lounge is a tragedy. The person responsible for the rebuilding must suffer from cerebral rectal insertion. The interior panels are bright white and someone thought 45,000 watts of lighting was appropriate. The sheer glare makes you feel like you are in a room where the CIA questions Al Quida suspects. Talk about off-putting! A very large handicapped john has been added to the short, "diner" end. Its wall ends right at the edge of the window's glass. It is at this point that an oversized wheel chair booth has been created- the problem is that this booth goes to the middle of the next window's glass. Thus each successive booth has the wall pillar in the middle of the table. The row ends with a short space where a table for 2 has been created with the benefit of 'all glass'. It was occupied by crew. OK, you must think that at least they got the other side of the aisle right, i.e. tables are lined up with the windows. WRONG. The screwed up positioning of the restroom side was matched on the other. Both tables for 2 were occupied by crew and the wheelchair area at the handicapped table was piled with luggage. This car day #1 out of the shop was the worst train food service car I have ever seen. Seeing it is wanting to cry.
Dinner was as bad as the car. Shortly after departure an employee literally pounded on my room door. When I opened the door he poked me in the chest with what turned out to be the dinner menu, waited a second and said at maximum volume, "what you want? what you want? what you want?" Aside from being poked and the words quoted above, there was no other communication. Later he would literally scream at colleagues in the diner who were 25 feet away and then giggle for a prolonged period. He, alone, thought his act was funny. It was the twilight zone.
The food was flopped on the plate like one would expect at a soup kitchen. The nut-job server made choices for customers and matched my beef with rice and carrots. The beef had curled into the shape of a taco shell, the rice had been mixed with wall paper paste and the carrots were frozen. Get the picture?
After my miserable night of no sleep, we were were thrown off the train in Huntington, WV about 8:30am. A freight had derailed ahead and we were to be bussed to Charlottesville. The bus was ready by 11:00. Every seat was taken; the air-conditioning died and could not be fixed despite stopping twice to try to fix it; and I sat in front of a schizophrenic guy who talked to himself some of the time and yelled at everyone the rest of the time. All this on no sleep!
It is important to say that the Cardinal would have been hell on earth without the bus ride. The decrepit condition of the sleeper, the otherworldly, twilight zone quality of the diner and the nut-job waiter were each alone trip destroyers. Together, they made for the trip from hell.
The trip on the Cardinal made me think (just for a minute) that the only thing to do with Amtrak is to take it out to the back of the barn and shoot it- put it out of its misery. Underfunding was certainly part of the problem. Ineptitude was most of it.
train lady Member # 3920
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Tom, I hope you will take the time to send this report to Amtrak customer relations. They need to know. This doesn't surprise me at all. We had riden the Carinal for many years and had some of the same complaints. At one point the tracks were so bad that the covers came right off the bed. My husband also had dificulty getting into the bathroom. The only saving grace was we had a great car attendent 3 different times. But we finally gave up taking that train.
palmland Member # 4344
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You're report on the Cardinal is very depressing. What could be (and one time was) a great ride sounds like marketing folks had no input on interior design on the Cardinal diner. And no one has control over the crew. You know it's bad when the conductor doesn't take the table for four. And why can't they design in a space for them rather than taking the best tables. Palmetto has this problem too.
I think I saw Amtrak now invites reports on the their website. If so, please post it there as well as writing to them as Train Lady suggests.
What really worries me is that these cars may eventually replace the heritage diners on the Silver Service trains as Amtrak does want to retire them.
Ocala Mike Member # 4657
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I submit for your approval, TomT's trip report above. I doubt that this one is a candidate for "Whistle Stop," or Amtrak's version of telling us how well the war in Iraq is going.
train lady Member # 3920
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It would be interesting, Mike, To see if they would publish this under Whistle Stop. Actually this is one occasion when it's better to talk to customer relations rather than write. When you write they can say "oh we never saw it" but when you call them they write everything down and in this case will probably send tom a voucher.
TomT Member # 4559
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I did send a letter to Customer Relations about 4 days ago. I don't expect a reply for a few days. If this diner/lounge is the future, that's not good.
George Harris Member # 2077
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Having read this report, I don't know whether to laugh, cry, scream or join you mentally deranged companion in incoherent babbling. Most of these problems could have been fixed or at least minimized with nothing more than acting with good sense, which is a cost free but seemingly rare commodity.
20th Century Member # 2196
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Tom T.: I guess the Zephyr was turned around in Roseville which might explain the servicing of the train in regards to food supply, refrigeration, and cleaning the train. But the Cardinal...what a pathetic fiasco. Your description reminded me of the movie..."The Out of Towners" with Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis. Sorry to hear what a disappointment that was. Glad to hear you sent a letter to Customer Relations. And as Train Lady advises, call Amtrak also.
sojourner Member # 3134
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When I was on the Cardinal this past fall, I didn't mind it--it was a very pretty trip, and I don't recall it being particularly bumpy, though maybe I'm forgetting. Anyway, I traveled coach because the sleepers were all booked (I booked the trip fairly last minute). I went down to NYC and stayed overnight with a friend, then caught the Cardinal from NYC to Indianapolis on a Wednesday, saw lots in Indianapolis, then back Saturday night (technically Sunday morning?) only as far as Charlottesville (because the Cardinal gets into NYC too late) and then caught a Crescent the next morning. At times it was a little crowded, and it was a small train, though for a portion they hooked an empty tourist train on for some special fall excursion at Huntington. The train was late getting to Indianapolis but I expected that and didn't mind. I had the seat to myself during the night; the bulk of people on it westbound got off in West Virginia.
Coming back, the train was busier (it being the weekend) but I still had the seat to myself during the night and in fact well into West Virginia; it was not until Virginia that someone got on and sat next to me. The train was under an hour late getting into Indianapolis (which was good, because the station area where I waited there was quite unpleasant!--this was my complaint about the trip, not the Cardinal!) but lost time overnight and got into Charlottesville around 4, 4:30.
Both ways, the diner and lounge were small, though, more typical of an Empire Service Viewliner than a Florida train or the Crescent (which are Viewliners too). In fact, the Crescent I caught back from Charlottesville to Washington DC (I took a Regional from there) was much more spacious, leg-room-wise. And the menu on the Cardinal was even more abbreviated than the new menus on other trains, with higher prices. On the westbound trip, when I asked about the possibility of buying breakfast, the food attendant said there was only enough hot food for the sleeper passengers. But I had brought some food of my own (and in Washington DC had time to run out and get a delicious Ben n Jerrys ice cream cup too) so I didn't care.
I got the impression that the Cardinal, because it runs only 3x a week and is overnight for just 1 night, with most of its passengers not overnighting, was the "red-haired stepchild" of the sleeper fleet, more like a Keystone or Empire Service train than like the Viewliner sleepers to Florida or New Orleans or the Texas Eagle (I've never been on CONO).
So, anyway, I am confused about the posts here that suggest this is the future of the observation car/diner merge. The Viewliner trains never had an observation car; they are not double decker--surely this is not what is planned for the western double decker Superliners?
notelvis Member # 3071
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Tom, I am sorry that you did not have a chance to ride the Cardinal when it was a Superliner equipped train.....2 sleepers, sightseer lounge AND full diner.....three coaches. Pleasant crew. Some of my best Amtrak memories were made with that version of the Cardinal.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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It sounds as if I am fortunate to have my memories of a Sep 1963 ride on C&O #3, The FFV. The large windowed C&O 10-6 "City of --" sleeper was as spotless outside as inside, and the perfect weather early autumn day made the New River Gorge an exceptional treat.
Further, the Pullman Porter saw fit to allow me use of a Bedroom during the day. That earned him a $5 tip 43 years ago - and from a college student at that!!!!
Based upon Mr. Tom T's experience, it appears my future LD trips should be confined to Auto Train
Liberty Limited Member # 4300
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Mr. Norman,
On my last trip on Cardinal #50, I thought Amtrak had indeed brought back the FFV - the only problem was now it stood for "Flustered Frustrated Virginian."
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