Opinions on Cardinal-Meteor connection via CVS-RVR thruway bus?

[SteveSFL]

I'm considering an October ELP-TPA trip via the Cardinal, where the routing includes the Thruway bus from Charlottesville to Richmond to catch the Meteor. I have never taken the Cardinal before, but I have read here that Eastbound seems to be the preferred direction and that the best scenery is probably the New River Gorge. Is there any significant scenery missed between CVS and WAS? And finally, does anyone have knowledge of what happens if Card is really late -- do they still send you on the bus to RVR or do they send you to WAS?

Thanks,

Steve

 

[Bob Dylan]

Steve, the Eagle to Cardinal connection has been iffy all Summer, but hopefully the fall will see the OTP of the Eagle get back on track, so to speak.

If you want to see the New Rover Gorge in Daylight, the Eastbound #50 is the way to roll.

The scenery in Virginia is nice on the train, but taking the bus from C-ville to Richmond will still be in Virginia, but it will probably be getting dark by then in the Fall if the Card is running late.( it usually is, its a very slow route!)

This is a guaranteed connection, but you might want to consider taking the Cap Ltd.#30 from CHI-WAS to connect with the Meteor.

The scenery from Pittsburgh East to Washington is very nice, and you won't have to ride a bus and hang around the Richmond Station waiting on the Meteor!

The Club Acela and Union Station in WAS are a lot better place to wait for the Meteor!

 

[pennyk]

I have taken the Cardinal to Charlottesville, then thruway to RVR, then Meteor to Florida once (in November a few years ago). The Cardinal was not running late at the time, so I had plenty of time to wait in RVR, which was not terrific - but not terrible. However, I did get to see a lot of trains go by. The thruway bus ride was a nice ride and the scenery was also nice - leaves were changing. I have no idea what would happen if the Cardinal was really late.

 

[City of Miami]

As I'm sure you know, the Meteor departs Richmond at 9:44pm if it is on time. The Cardinal 50 ontime arrival is 3:10. The Ambus ride is about 70 minutes. So you need to depart Charlottesville by 8:30 latest. The Cardinal is almost never 5+ hours late - AAMOF I can remember a single instance of that aside from the train being cancelled altogether. That instance was memorable because the Crescent 19 and Cardinal 50 were in the station at the same time, 8:50pm.

The Cardinal 50 is often an hour or so late, fairly often on time and occasionally early! I'm very aware of it because I usually walk over to the station to see it.

No significant scenery between Charlottesville and Richmond - lots of green in the summer and color in the fall.

BTW I just checked for RVR-TPA for tomorrow and the Meteor has available only the accessible BR for $1283 and the Star is sold out. :blink:

 

[Shanghai]

I took the AmBus from CVS to RVR in April. It was a nice bus with only Amtrak passengers,

I don't recall the scenery, but the ride was enjoyable.

 

[SteveSFL]

Thanks for the replies! I've done the Cap Ltd once before and I'm doing it again in September. The two purposes of the planned October trip (other than getting to Tampa) are to fill some of my route-map gaps, namely SAS-LVW on the Eagle and then the Cardinal. I figure there should be some nice fall colors, too.

Another thing I considered was Orlando-Denver via Meteor and LSL, since I've never been on the Meteor north of WAS and never on the LSL either.

Either trip would be a nice AGR 2-zone roomette. The options on the ELP-TPA Cardinal trip are limited, though, since the planets only align on one day a week for the TE-Card connection in Chicago!

I really should see a therapist now that my craving for trips has me wanting to go almost monthly!