# Cardinal Great Dome Trip



## Ispolkom (Nov 1, 2010)

I just got back from riding the Cardinal with Amtrak's sole remaining dome car from Chicago to Washington (or, actually, Alexandria).

The good:

1) The dome car. It was great to eat dinner in the dome car riding through the twilight south of Chicago, seeing over the cars in front of us to watch the signals change. It was also great to have the superior view from the dome car while going through the New River Gorge and into Virginia.

2) The Viewliner roomette. This was the first time I had a chance to sleep in the upper bunk of a viewliner roomette, and it's vastly superior to the Superliner equivalent, both in the width of the bunk, the amount of headroom you have, and, especially the windows you can look out of if you can't sleep.

3) AGR's response. I was traveling on the Empire Builder from Minot, No. Dak., to connect to the Cardinal, on a two-zone AGR award. Since the westbound #7 is turned around and becomes the eastbound #8, I knew on Thursday afternoon that Friday evening's westbound Empire Builder would be too late to connect to Saturday evening's Cardinal. (In the end it was more than 5 hours late.) It took 45 minutes talking to both an agent and her supervisor, but I did get moved to the previous day's train. Sure, I had to find my own accommodations in Chicago for a night, but this is the first time I've ever convinced AGR to let me spend the night in Chicago.

4) The sleeping car attendant, Brian, and the dinette-lounge attendants. They were always working hard, but still were very friendly, and put up with those of us who took our meals back to the dome.

The indifferent:

The food on the Cardinal. Saturday's pot roast dinner was perfectly fine (it's hard to screw up reheating pot roast), but those French toast sticks are nasty! And boy that one-car lounge dinette is not optimal at all.

The bad:

The conductors. I've never been a big fan of Amtrak conductors, whose demeanor ranges from mediocre to downright hostile, but people have been complaining about imperious conductors since they first strode the passenger cars. I'm sure there are many excellent conductors on Amtrak, but I've encountered enough bad apples that I would never, for instance, bother to try for an on-board upgrade.

Their behavior on this train, though, was really suboptimal. It ranged from claiming that the great dome wasn't on the manifest, to that it was closed, to "Well, I'm not going to announce that this car is on the train because those coach passengers would just trash it." (Quoted from memory, but not made up.) I went to bed relatively early, and only went back to the dome later the next morning, so other riders had to argue with the conductors about riding in the car that was, of course, the whole point of the trip.

Heck, since the sleeper was at the front of the train and the Great Dome was the last Amtrak car on the train (there were two private cars at the end of the consist), I walked through the cars at least half a dozen times. I noticed that the conductors, or the attendants, or someone, kept pushing coach passengers into the first three, or even first two coaches. Really. I'd walk through two crowded coaches, and then two empty ones. I'm sure that this is more convenient for the crew, but it's wretched customer service if the crew's convenience trumps passenger comfort. And what's the point of having the Dome car on, if you're not going to tell passengers about it? Especially if it's isolated by one or two coaches passengers have been told not to sit in.

Good idea, poor execution.


----------



## the_traveler (Nov 2, 2010)

Great report, and great points about "the bad". It doesn't make sense at all!






I rode the Great Dome on the Adirondack (trip report to be finished, if I get around to it



). It was the first car behind the locomotive, and was busy most of the time, but there were always seats available. One thing I did not care for was the way the seating was. Some passengers had to ride backwards or with their backs to the window (similar to a CCC), but at least it was glass all around!


----------



## Ispolkom (Nov 3, 2010)

the_traveler said:


> One thing I did not care for was the way the seating was. Some passengers had to ride backwards or with their backs to the window (similar to a CCC), but at least it was glass all around!


I have to agree. People who complain about the seating in CCCs should see the Great Dome to get an idea of how Amtrak can really screw up seating.


----------



## Dan Chazin (Nov 3, 2010)

I was on the Cardinal this past weekend, too (we spoke to each other, as I remember your telling me about your trip to Minot). I can't speak about the conductors who took the train out of Chicago on Saturday night, as I boarded in Indianapolis. But I didn't have any problems with the conductors from Indianapolis to Washington, and I found the conductors from Charlottesville to Washington to be particularly friendly. On my extensive travels on Amtrak, I have encountered both good and bad conductors. There are some bad ones, but there are also some very good ones who do everything they can to help passengers out -- and I have encountered a number of them.

As for crowding the passengers into a limited number of coaches, I agree that this did occur to some extent, but for the most part, passengers could move around and take a seat in a less-occupied coach if they wanted to.

I think that the main problem is that Amtrak did not do a good job of publicizing the availability of the dome car on this train. It's bad enough that many potential passengers didn't know about it, but it is inexcusable that (as apparently was the case) the conductor of the train was not aware in advance that the dome car would be on the train.

Overall, though, I had a fantastic experience, and I was really glad that I rode the dome car on this train.


----------



## Devil's Advocate (Nov 3, 2010)

Yet another thread that claims the OBS do almost everything they can to prevent passengers from finding or entering the dome. Why even attach the damn thing if the OBS is allowed to pretend it's either not there or not available?!


----------



## the_traveler (Nov 3, 2010)

daxomni said:


> that claims the OBS do almost everything they can to prevent passengers from finding or entering the dome


Conductors are *NOT* OBS at all. OBS are staff such as car attendants and dining car staff who stay with the train from beginning to end. Conductors and engineers change every 6-8 hours!


----------



## Ryan (Nov 3, 2010)

the_traveler said:


> daxomni said:
> 
> 
> > that claims the OBS do almost everything they can to prevent passengers from finding or entering the dome
> ...


Yep.

The term that Dax is looking for is "Operating Crew".


----------



## Dan Chazin (Nov 3, 2010)

Regarding the "OBS," I should note that I observed the coach attendant on the train specifically mentioning the availability of the dome car to a number of passengers who boarded at intermediate stops. The coach attendant was very friendly and seemed to be genuinely concerned about helping the passengers.


----------



## Devil's Advocate (Nov 3, 2010)

Operating Crew is duly noted. :excl:


----------

