From: bdburk@hotmail.com
To: burkbuddy@aol.com
Sent: 11/21/2011 4:42:53 P.M. Central Standard Time
Subj: Fw: Amtrak's "Great Dome Car" coming to the Midwest for Thanksgiving----- Original Message -----Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 3:48 PMSubject: Amtrak's "Great Dome Car" coming to the Midwest for Thanksgiving
November 21, 2011
Amtrak's Great Dome Car coming to the Midwest for Thanksgiving
Passengers enjoy the Great Dome car on Amtrak’s Adirondack in October 2009. Photo by Malcolm Kenton.
Amtrak's "Great Dome" car is running the next several days on Amtrak’s short-distance corridors radiating from Chicago. This is the same car that ran this fall and last on certain runs of the Adirondack and Cardinal. The car is scheduled to run as follows (train numbers in parentheses):
- Nov. 21 (today) – 5:30 pm from Quincy to Chicago (382)
- Tues., Nov. 22 – 5:15 pm from Chicago to St. Louis (305)
- Wed., Nov. 23 – 4:35 am from St. Louis to Chicago (300); 12:16 pm from Chicago to Detroit and Pontiac (352)
- Thurs., Nov. 24 (Thanksgiving)—6:05 am from Pontiac (6:48 am from Detroit) (351)
- Fri., Nov. 25 – 7:00 am from Chicago to St. Louis (301); 3:00 pm from St. Louis to Chicago (304)
- Sat., Nov. 26 – 9:25 am from Chicago to St. Louis (303); 5:30 pm from St. Louis to Chicago (306)
- Sun., Nov. 27 –4:05 pm from Chicago to Carbondale (393)
- Mon., Nov. 28—7:30 am from Carbondale to Chicago (390)
This is the only dome car Amtrak runs. In the 1950s and 1960s, the car ran between Chicago and Seattle on the Empire Builder, then operated by the Great Northern Railway and the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Amtrak most recently refurbished the car in 1999. The car was “for Pullman passengers only.” By 1970, this was the only lounge on the train, so coach passengers were allowed to use the “colorful beverage lounge in the lower section”
The Great Dome in Charlottesville, VA, behind Amtrak’s Cardinal in November 2011. Photo by NARP member Matt Johnson (tracktwentynine on Flickr).
NARP Links
Debt Supercommittee Failure Kicks Can Down the Road
The apparent failure of the “supercommittee,” or Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, raises the prospect of “sequestration,” or automatic across-the-board budget cuts. These cuts would take place in January, 2013. However, they could become retroactive to October 1, 2012, when Fiscal 2013 begins.
Amtrak’s operating grant for FY 2012 is $1.42 billion ($95 million for operations, 17% less than the 2011 level). Imposition in fiscal 2013 of anything close to an additional 10% reduction would be a crushing blow.
The good news is there is no immediate crisis; the bad news is that politicians can’t focus on problems so many months down the road.
You have received this email because you are a member or supporter of the National Association of Railroad Passengers.
If you no longer wish to receive emails from NARP, unsubscribe here.