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Need advice on Cardinal and Texas Eagle travel

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The Cardinal is only one of two Amtrak long distance trains that I have not ridden, so I cannot comment on it.  I am very familiar with the Texas Eagle.  I ride it three or four times a year.  I usually take it to Chicago for a connection to another Amtrak train, but on occasion I take it to San Antonio to connect with the Sunset Limited or vice versa.As Amtrak's long distance trains go, the Eagle is not one of its better trains.  Having said that, it has been clean, comfortable, and safe.  It usually has a transition sleeper, regular sleeper, dinning car, lounge car, and two coaches.  When I last took the Eagle in February, my roomette was a bit threadbare, but it was stocked properly, and the car attendant took good care of me.  I have never run into a crew member on the Eagle with a bad attitude.    The meals are the Eagle are prepared off the train and heated in a microwave on the diner. They are a tad better than TV dinners but not by much.  Some of the food in the lounge car has been better than that in the dinning car, i.e. sandwiches, pizza, and it is cheaper.  However, meals in the dinning car are included in the cost of the sleeper, so it would not be a good move to eat in the lounge car.The biggest problem with the Eagle is its persistent tardiness.  To date in 2008 it has been late arriving into Fort Worth by an average of 103 minutes.  It loses even more time, on average, between Fort Worth and San Antonio, where it has been late by an average of 125 minutes.  Passengers going to San Antonio can expect to arrive in the Alamo City well after midnight.  Or if they are amongst the very unlucky ones, they might find themselves arriving between 4 and 6 a.m., which happens more frequently than Amtrak likes to admit.   The stations in Marshall, Longview, Mineola, Dallas, Fort Worth, Cleburne, Temple, and San Marcos are in safe parts of their communities.  Taylor is not a good place to get off the train in the middle of the night; catching a cab would be difficult.  The Austin station is in a shabby area of town, as indicated by a sign in the parking lot telling patrons not to park their car there overnight, although getting a cab is should not be a problem.  The station in San Antonio is not in the best part of town.  I have heard from some people that arriving there at 2:00 a.m. was not the kind of thrill that they were looking for.  They said getting a cab was a problem.If you are going to Dallas, you can make an across the platform transfer to the DART light rail system as well as the Trinity Railway Express.  In Fort Worth you can also make an across the platform transfer to the TRE or you can catch a bus from the Intermodal Transit Center.  Wherever you are going in Texas on the Eagle, prudence would suggest that you plan on a late arrival.  If being late does not bother you, it should be a nice trip.
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