Amtrak Diner and Food Service Discussion

exvalley wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2019 9:08 am

lordsigma12345 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2019 12:17 am5 is probably their ideal if they can transform a bunch of the current long distance into strings of corridors (like DC-Pittsburgh-Chicago corridors instead of capitol and Albany-Buffalo-Cleveland-Chicago corridors instead of lake shore.)

So how would that work if you want to travel from Albany to Chicago, for example? Would you be on one train that travels the whole route or would you have to connect in Buffalo and Cleveland?

Lake shore i would think would definitely one of the “maybe” ones. If they ended up on the 10 side of things, lake shore would still exist, but if they got their wish with 5 it’s probably be a string of corridors. That one would probably be a situation where if they got corridors connecting the whole route, they’d then decide whether to ditch the through train (requiring end to end uses to transfer between corridor trains.) I think CHI-ALB connectivity is always going to be possible - the question is whether the lake shore itself would still run in such a scenario. Capitol is probably Another similar situation. The 5 “stays” I think would be the Auto Train, Zephyr, Coast Starlight, Builder, and maybe one of the Silvers would be the fifth. I think the rest are a mix of “maybes” and “train-offs.” This is of course all dependent on if congress approves any changes... I am hoping their blueprint will go route by route pitching what to do and we’ll all have to judge the plans on their merits. I think it’s going to come down to a route by route decision.

exvalley wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2019 11:15 am
According to my recent experiences on the Lake Shore Limited, the answer to both of your questions is, "Yes."

Thanks. You’re right! The staff on the Crescent this time is great and made it clear that the “first class lounge” is indeed for lounge use.

Plus the food this time is better. It would still be better to serve the “flexible dining” meals on China, but at least this time I was given a hot roll.

Question (again): I’m sure that this has been answered numerous times, but it seems moronic to constantly be closing the regular lounge car during mealtimes. It must be due to crew changes, but why doesn’t Amtrak keep the regular lounge car open more?

For example, it closes from about 5:45pm until 6:50pm or so on the southbound Crescent: really? And they wonder why food service on Amtrak loses money?

They can’t give lounge car attendants smartphones with Square devices to process credit card payments while the train is parked at Washington without power? And they can’t give backup battery power to the lounge car food prep area?

Did pre-Amtrak railroads constantly close their lounge cars en route?

I would have thought the purpose of the LSA taking a "meal break" during dining hours, was because they needed to have their meal while the dining car was serving. Now, with flexible dining hours , that would not seem to be necessary, perhaps they haven't got around to changing it yet.

A question , does the kitchen part of the dining car still face the sleeper end?. Made sense when coach customers had access, but now it would seem to be just further for sleeping car passengers to walk. If it was made into a cafe , it would make sense to hve it facing the coach end too.

The kitchen has faced the coaches on my last few trips.

Makes sense , thanks.

They have the kitchen face the sleepers sometimes? Every single time I’ve ridden in a VL sleeper with a VL2 diner the seating area faced the sleepers - kitchen faced the coaches - which is the reason I’ve thought they’d probably make this car into the cafe too.

Early Happy new year to all on this board. Just picking this thread because it was a recent one I posted on. This is a great board with lots of members of many different viewpoints and it seems like everyone gets a chance to voice their opinion without being trolled. We all have our viewpoints and opinions and all should be welcome whatever your political persuasion or opinion of the current direction of Amtrak’s management. Passionate, while respectful, debate should be the ideal we all strive for in the USA.

On every trip I have taken the diner seating end faces rear towards the sleepers. I was always under the impression that that was done to provide access from the ADA bedroom to the ADA seating in the diner.

Since only one out of two or three sleepers can provide this, it always seemed unfair to me that any other ADA passengers in the other sleepers could not use the diner.

Now that the new Viewliner IIs diners have ridiculously eliminated 6 seats (1 1/2 tables) for rarely needed ADA access (I have never seen a wheelchair in a diner although other ADA passengers have walked in - one with a little dog that sat at the table!), I think a different policy should be considered. They now have a large unsightly open area holding large cardboard trash containers there. Looks really crappy for a "First Class" lounge.

Serving ADA passengers in their rooms seems totally acceptable to me. That actually would seem preferable for most ADA passengers. I assume that is the way it is done on all Superliner trains and for 2 out of 3 ADA passengers on a single level train. We really need some common sense here.

I agree about the cardboard trash cans: not classy. Nor is the bin with the sign saying “Leave Trays Here”.

If Amtrak would just serve the “flexible dining” meals on real china, and with drinks in glassware instead of plastic cups, I’d be fine with it. Maybe a dessert station and a bread station where you could pick your choice of bread and your choice of dessert, too? That shouldn’t require any additional labor.

SouthernRailway wrote: ↑Wed Jan 01, 2020 10:50 am I agree about the cardboard trash cans: not classy. Nor is the bin with the sign saying “Leave Trays Here”.

If Amtrak would just serve the “flexible dining” meals on real china, and with drinks in glassware instead of plastic cups, I’d be fine with it. Maybe a dessert station and a bread station where you could pick your choice of bread and your choice of dessert, too? That shouldn’t require any additional labor.

Real chinaware and real glasses would require an additional employee called a dishwasher, and that is an additional cost of labor.

It appears flexible dining will be added to the Silver Star on May 1.

electricron wrote: ↑Wed Jan 01, 2020 12:19 pm Real chinaware and real glasses would require an additional employee called a dishwasher, and that is an additional cost of labor.

Hauling several large trash bins off a train also requires labor.

Airlines serve meals on china and drinks in real glasses.

SouthernRailway wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:05 pm Hauling several large trash bins off a train also requires labor.

But apparently the incremental trash of disposable serving tools does not require incremental labor.

I suspect that trash-handling and onboard recovery of china are two different unions.

Somebody to handle the collection, cleaning, and restocking of china does seem like a whole new thing compared to just hauling off trash.

Plus they don't have to travel with the train to haul off trash; they can be stationed at some point and handle numerous trains as they arrive. (Not that it isn't a lot more pleasant to have china and real glasses.) There's a precedent, however--the original Metroliners served drinks in cheap plastic cup-like things that looked like dollar-store refugees.

Amtrak needs to figure out how to find a way to serve meals on china and drinks in glassware if it wants to continue to charge high prices for sleeping car space. If that's not possible, then at least it should be able to figure out how to continue to use the fake china and nice plastic glassware that it used to use in dining cars; that's better than the Flexible Dining TV dinner trays and plastic cups.