I am currently on 21 heading to Longview, and ultimately to Houston for the Lions – Texans game. Lifelong Lions fan - I always enjoy getting to road games on Amtrak.
I drove over from Indianapolis to Bloomington-Normal and picked up the Eagle there. First time I've used that station. Like a lot of stations in Illinois it is very nice. Not fancy, but very functional. Really nice parking garage for long-term parking for my vehicle – which will be there for about five days. I wish the stations in Indiana were half as nice as that one.
Dinner (flexible dining) was much better than the Cadinal. It makes a real difference to actually have a diner (CCC) to sit in. The crew also made a concerted effort to improve the presentation of the meal. And the fact that there is a kitchen available also allowed them to prepare the food about as well as it could be .
My normal train is the Cardinal. Same food, terrible presentation, inconsistent preparation, lousy eating environment. Even if they just added the VL Diner to the Cardinal without a food change – it would make a huge difference as a start.
Overall, I am pleasantly surprised thus far. Also – it was nice to see the longer train today as the consist includes 421.