Lake Shore Limited

I don't see a wholesale dismantling of dining car service mentioned anywhere in here; I see two routes. Which means two route sets of diners with their kitchens removed and the experience left intact, and left intact for those paying the $$$ for roomettes/sleepers. Both trains originating in Chicago, and one each in DC and NY.

Maybe this puts something similar back on Silver trains.

But I STILL don't see a dismantling. I see "entrees such as".... Admittedly, not as appetizing. And a private car.

It could be worse.

Capitol Limited and lake Shore Limited sleeping car customers to be offered fresh choices for meals this summer

WASHINGTON – Amtrak will offer contemporary and fresh dining choices for sleeping car customers, instead of traditional dining car service, embarking aboard its Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited trains starting June 1.

Sleeping car customers will choose meals delivered to their Bedrooms or Roomettes – or eaten in a private café or lounge car – and entrees such as:

Lunch & Dinner: Chilled beef tenderloin, Vegan wrap, Chicken Caesar salad, or Turkey club sandwich.
Breakfast: Assorted breakfast breads with butter, cream cheese and strawberry jam; Greek yogurt and sliced seasonal fresh fruit plate.
These meals will continue to be included in the sleeping car fare and are delivered to the trains just prior to origination, eliminating on-board preparation. Customers will also be offered unlimited soft beverages, a complimentary serving of beer, wine or a mixed-drink and an amenity kit. A Kosher meal continues to be available with advance notice.

“Our plan is to provide new and fresh food choices in a contemporary way for these overnight trains,” said Bob Dorsch, Vice President of the Amtrak Long Distance Service Line. “Our continued success depends on increasing customer satisfaction while becoming more efficient.”

Dorsch said this enhancement will continue to be refined and we look forward to hearing from our customers.

The Capitol Limited (Trains 29 & 30) operates daily between Washington, D.C., and Chicago, via Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The Lake Shore Limited (Trains 48 & 49) typically operates daily between Chicago and New York, with a section to and from Boston (Trains 448 & 449).

What I see is no hot food. Maybe there will be something hot still in the cafe car?

But no hot meals. I'm really glad my days of riding 48/49 back and forth between Chicago and NY are over.

There's nothing in this announcement that says anything about the cafe car.

Do the cafe cars and the diner cars ever share personnel?

Two routes, aka. basically the only reasonable way to do a cross country trip. The third route is very long and mostly makes sense if you are going someplace only served by that train, or if you want to see the scenery. It’s not even a daily train. Me, I booked it this trip for a change of pace. It doesn’t operate on the day I needed to travel, but I made it work as a one off, since I have vacation time to burn anyway.

So, yes, at least you have the chance to ride on these beautiful cars. I will try to fit in a trip on the Capitol before 6/1 (on Guest Rewards points, cancelling a trip paid for with money in July) and then bid a sad farewell to traveling by train to Chicago. It’s no longer worth it. I’ll probably fly to Chicago sometime later in the year and take the western trains, because it’s clear the reaper is coming.

I personally think the title of this thread should be changed; this is the elimination of dining. Yes, there is still the cafe car. There’s a reason there are two different icons on the schedule — they are not the same thing by a mile. It’s not even clear if you could eat at the cafe without being charged for it, after paying a first class fare. Can you imagine a first class 19 hour airline flight with cold food and a free drink?

Theoretically, Amtrak is trying to make the general public ride these trains, not just people who like trains enough to put up with virtually anything.

I think what will happen ultimately is that there will be only one car. Maybe the Viewliner diner will be reconfigured to become a cafe car for everyone - including serving limited hot food. Sleeping car pax will have meals delivered to their rooms.

I think this "sleeping car lounge" idea came into being only because there is not enough time in the short term to reconfigure the diners.

scoostraw wrote:I think what will happen ultimately is that there will be only one car. Maybe the Viewliner diner will be reconfigured to become a cafe car for everyone - including serving limited hot food. Sleeping car pax will have meals delivered to their rooms.

I think this "sleeping car lounge" idea came into being only because there is not enough time in the short term to reconfigure the diners.

The lack of a single-level lounge car has been a glaring problem. Running the Lake Shore Limited with a Viewliner diner acting as a sleeper lounge and an Amfleet cafe is a reasonable solution to that problem:

• You have coverage on both sections. If you wanted to sell snacks on the New York section you could, though passengers seem to manage between New York and Albany without it. It's a long way from Albany to Boston without food service.
• It keeps the Viewliner diner cycling to Sunnyside where it can be exchanged with the Silver Meteor and Crescent.

Let's do ourselves a favor and set aside that the New York section isn't running this summer. Everyone knows that, and it's temporary. Also, I know it's fashionable around here to dump on the hot food in the cafe car, but it's fine and it's what most passengers consume. Let's not act as though Amtrak is ladling gruel or some such.

It’s fast food, basically. Some of it is OK. The menu barely changes, and if you take Amtrak often, you’ve probably eaten it all 50 times. No thanks on eating that stuff for 3 meals.

Mackensen wrote: The lack of a single-level lounge car has been a glaring problem. Running the Lake Shore Limited with a Viewliner diner acting as a sleeper lounge and an Amfleet cafe is a reasonable solution to that problem:

Except you've got diner style seating rather than mixed lounge accommodations, and a good percentage of said "lounge" car taken up by an unused kitchen that Amtrak spent considerable money designing and building, or you have to remove the kitchen and reconfigure the car at considerable expense, thus precluding the restoration of proper dining services in the future.

I certainly hope the menu contains hot food, even if warmed.

I've lost track of the number of times I've travelled BOS-CHI on the Lake Shore. One of the less advertised advantages is being seated with strangers in the dining car. In conversations with those strangers, I've learned that most people find that meeting and chatting with others over a meal on the train is a fascinating experience. Those who aren't accustomed to long-distance train travel seem most intrigued by this facet of their trip. Others know what to expect and enjoy it. Stripping away the amenities, and I consider the dining car just one amenity, seems frighteningly like what the railroads did to discourage passengers prior to the creation of Amtrak. Cold food on a tray in my roomette? No, thank you. A few choices of cold food in a diner doesn't appeal to me, either.

If their menu is to be believed, it does not.

ryanov wrote:It’s fast food, basically. Some of it is OK. The menu barely changes, and if you take Amtrak often, you’ve probably eaten it all 50 times. No thanks on eating that stuff for 3 meals.

By and large it's not good but I have noticed, on regionals, menus now rotate. Ideally some of the savings from not paying an extra 7 on board employees would go into higher food quality. amtrak probably spent too little, relative to other restaurants, on the food itself, and too much delivering it to the customer.

There's another advantage to de-dinering; with less on board staff, they can sell two or three more roomettes to passengers.

Jeff Smith wrote:I certainly hope the menu contains hot food, even if warmed.

No hot food. Everything is cold.