CT Junction (MP 664.9), up on the steelwork viaduct west-northwest of the C&O bridge, below the highway ramps on the north side of the Brent Spence Bridge carrying I-75 across the Ohio River, is the junction where the freight route from B&O Junction and Queensgate Yard, trailing in on the north side of the line, joins the ex-C&O double track main line from Cincinnati Union Terminal, heading east at this point. The double track line, with speed limit 20 mph, turns south past a crossover, MD Cabin (MP 664.3), where a connection from the former Big Four line west along the Ohio River trails in from the west, crosses the Ohio River into Kentucky, on the massive through-truss C&O Bridge, where the speed limit rises to 30 mph, and, elevated on a steel viaduct over the city streets below, passes OB Cabin (the C&O name for a tower), MP 663.8, now a signal bridge with C&O-style position lights, with the old tower on the east side, up on the steel viaduct, and Covington (MP 663.7), where there are additional tracks on the west side of the line, to KC Junction (MP 662.6), where the former L&N line to Latonia continues southward, and the former C&O main line makes a big turn around to the northeast.
For the rest of the way to Washington, DC, the Amtrak Cardinal uses former C&O tracks now owned by CSX, with a small portion of trackage on which CSX has trackage rights over NS (the former Southern Railway main line) at the eastern end.