Theres only about 2 or 3 routes that go out that way. I think the main one is the one that goes from DC to Chicago - Im going to hate myself for this, but i think its Route 51, the cardinal? I think theres another one that runs through that direction as well... 29 maybe? Theyre both long distance trains, and the reason they are a little more expensive because a meal is included in the ticket price, generally. Or used to be, anyway. Its been a few years now.
I know this post was a few days ago, but I've been on vacation and enjoying not looking at the internet much, so I missed it.
The Cardinal goes between NYC and Chicago, passing through DC on the way, and it goes a southerly route, dipping down to Cincinnati, hitting a few Kentucky stops, coming back up through WV and VA back up to DC and then along the Northeast Corridor to NYC.
I took this train from Chicago through to Wilmington in late 2012. Reasons were numerous (not wanting to fly over the winter holidays being chief. Also, I enjoy train travel. So I thought taking the train might be nice.) Note: I was in coach, because for a person traveling alone, a first-class ticket for a roomette is not at all cost-effective (vs. flying).
Based on my experience, I advise: do not take this train.
It was literally the worst single experience of my life. Prior to that, running the 2012 Boston Marathon in 90 degree heat had been the worst experience of my life. After that soul-destroying, delayed 29 (!!!) hours on the Cardinal squeezed in next to a large woman who took up a good third of
my seat, in front of the world's worst mother with a baby that screamed every five minutes between midnight and 2 a.m., never mind the absolute inability for this group of mostly-adults to not make a complete horror show out of the lavatories (such that the conductor scolded our car multiple times about how we were grown-ups and shouldn't be making such a mess) ...... I would suffer those hours of running Boston through heat exhaustion, risking my very health and well-being, over and over and over again, if someone told me I had to do that OR take the Cardinal again.
It is the standard against which I measure all unpleasant things. Would I rather have a stick in the eye, or take the Cardinal? Stick in the eye, please.
Would I rather have the hand doctor stitch a skin graft to the tip of my sliced-off index finger under fading local anesthetic again, or take the Cardinal? Get out that needle, doctor, and never mind the Novocaine.
I can make it through ANY horrible, dull, pointless, awful meeting, if only I remind myself what it was like to sit 29 hours on a train in half a seat with a baby screaming nonstop and its mother telling it to "shut up."
If you're going to take the Amtrak between Chicago and DC, take the Capitol Limited. That's the route I took on my way out to the Midwest that year. I don't expect everyone's trip to unfold quite the way mine did, BUT there are other factors: the cars on that route are more comfortable. The people on it were nicer. I recall no disgusting, horrifying restroom situations. DO NOT TAKE THE CARDINAL. (Unless you have to because you're going to one of the intermediate stops. Then, I might advise driving instead.)
This has been your friendly service message from Dr. Crusher.
