gokeefe wrote: ↑Sun Sep 22, 2019 5:01 pm
Something that we have barely acknowledged yet is that with this plan Amtrak has managed to consolidate all food service into a single car while reducing staffing, ensuring provision of hot meals and allowing for private dining to sleeping car passengers either in room or at the lounge tables.
I'm having a hard time seeing the downside here. Coach passengers remain free to carry-on food and drink (which from some stations is quite good) and to pack it from home if they so choose.
It's very boring. It's a big chunk taken out of the tedium to have a real sit down meal, not a sad eat some junk out of the box experience that isn't worth spending more than 20 minutes on. It was just dead in the dining car on the two trips I experienced with contemporary dining. That was a big part of the trip.
gokeefe wrote:Sleeping car passengers get upgraded linens (in their rooms as opposed to just at the table when they dine), in room dining (or a reemphasis on its provision), hot meals (restored from box meals) , private dining in the lounge and 24/7 exclusive access to the lounge.
They can't make the food completely terrible, then improve it slightly and call it an improvement.
gokeefe wrote:I think Amtrak has done a really good job recognizing they had cut too far in some areas, needed improvements in others and (I think correctly) have reduced coach priveleges which were encroaching on the exclusivity of First Class.
If anything Amtrak has actually restored value to the First Class offerring. Ironically, this actually mirrors historic practice by the railroads which (as I understand it) restricted lounge access to extra care passengers only.
What on earth was encroaching on first class? Allowing other people to eat in the same room?
At any rate, this food is an improvement over the terrible stuff I was served last year when I rode the Lake Shore and Capitol Limiteds for one last hurrah, but it's still a disappointment to see how little of it is vegetarian, or even pescetarian. All sorts of things there that don't really need to have meat in them, or could have the meat provided separately, but nope. I'm happy to see that there's at least a non-meat breakfast sandwich option on the NEC cafe now. This flexible dining menu? Asian noodle bowl for every meal, I guess? Cool. Nope.
|=| R. Novosielski |=|