Amtrak Diner and Food Service Discussion

[Rockingham Racer]

I find that I eat too much when I'm on Amtrak, LOL! Recently, on a round trip on the Sunset Limited, I had three full breakfasts, a hotdog off the kids menu, the angus burger, and one steak dinner. All were excellent, IMO.

[danib62]

I find that I eat too much when I'm on Amtrak, LOL! Recently, on a round trip on the Sunset Limited, I had three full breakfasts, a hotdog off the kids menu, the angus burger, and one steak dinner. All were excellent, IMO.

This my friends is how Amtrak loses money on food

[WashingtonPark]

Another article on Amtrak dining. https://nypost.com/2019/09/22/millennia ... on-trains/

Some fair use quotes. "25-year-old Nathan Sieminski, who commutes once a month on Amtrak from New York to Charlottesville, Va., said he’s not upset to see the dining cars go. “The dining car is only open for a few hours, and when it is open, the lines are long and the food is questionable,” Sieminski said. “I was basically given a microwave pizza last time. It’s not something people will miss.”
"Josh Ingram, 54, who was headed for a Miami-bound train at Penn Station on Sunday, acknowledged to The Post that “people just don’t like talking to each other the way they used to” — but bemoaned the end of the current dining-car tradition. “It’s the nostalgia that people care about, not the food,” Ingram said. “The food on these trains hasn’t been good for years.”

[Tadman]

Another article on Amtrak dining. https://nypost.com/2019/09/22/millennia ... on-trains/

Some fair use quotes. "25-year-old Nathan Sieminski, who commutes once a month on Amtrak from New York to Charlottesville, Va., said he’s not upset to see the dining cars go. “The dining car is only open for a few hours, and when it is open, the lines are long and the food is questionable,” Sieminski said. “I was basically given a microwave pizza last time. It’s not something people will miss.”

He's not wrong. The general public just wants a meal with some sense of normalcy. They don't want to play "guess the odd hours the dining car is open" and "we're behind, go back to your seat until we call you". Those games suck.

...
So Amtrak apparently IS taking some input.

It would seem so and I was admittedly surprised by it. I figured Anderson would dig in on the box meals and call it a day.

He didn't build Delta into what it is today by ruining it. It's a far superior airline to UAL and AMR for a reason. His customer service initiatives were really good, and I'm surprised he hasn't done more. My initial dislike for him was because he didn't wade in and drop the hammer on basics like boarding, which is bloody awful.

There's another potential issue with eating in a roomette/room (though as I understand it, some of the new changes will solve this).
The table SUCKS. The weird "edge" makes it impossible to put stuff flat on it if it's too wide. And with 2 people trying to eat dinner, it could be quite crowded.
And for a family of four, it's actually nice to have a nice sit down meal in the diner.

I haven't been in a roomette with two, or bedroom with four, in a long time, if ever. But the lip on the table has never bothered me. I spend a lot of time with a laptop open by myself in a roomette and it seems to work for me.

[lordsigma12345]

Another article on Amtrak dining. https://nypost.com/2019/09/22/millennia ... on-trains/

Some fair use quotes. "25-year-old Nathan Sieminski, who commutes once a month on Amtrak from New York to Charlottesville, Va., said he’s not upset to see the dining cars go. “The dining car is only open for a few hours, and when it is open, the lines are long and the food is questionable,” Sieminski said. “I was basically given a microwave pizza last time. It’s not something people will miss.”

This rider is clearly talking about the cafe car and not the diner. Talk about laziness on behalf of the writer of this article.

[Greg Moore]

Or is it a case of the rider not knowing the difference?
Like I say, I've met many coach passengers who didn't even know there was a full diner.

Regardless of any of the other changes, one of the things I think Amtrak failed at greatly in the past was actually advertising the diner.

[gokeefe]

Could be any of the above. Regardless this initiative is getting Amtrak more positive press than anything food related I can remember in quite some time.

The announcement regarding deployment of the new sleeper cars is bold to say the least. They've had so much trouble with the CAF contract and now they are swinging for the fences with it.

It certainly feels to me like the drift and stagnation in certain areas has been replaced by ambition and creativity. It certainly helps that Anderson has been willing to terminate positions where others wouldn't. This isn't a "good" outcome but unfortunately it was a necessary one.

[mtuandrew]

This isn't a "good" outcome but unfortunately it was a necessary one.

That’s a reasonable assessment. Amtrak had to undersell the eastern LD diners for years (with the Temoinsa-rebuild Heritage units gone), and further had some crewmembers that saw no benefit to selling more meals beyond the ones sleeper passengers had already paid for. Couple that with the general decline in people who want a sit-down dinner (though I think that trend is overexaggerated in this case) and the diner as we know it was cooked.

I’m not sure they went the right way. I’d have greatly preferred a grill car serving somewhat more informal meals (but where you could still get your steak and French toast) to all the passengers, during extended hours, but Amtrak chose this path and I’m curious how it will work.

[Greg Moore]

Yeah, I think since they're apparently going to the "open all hours" experimenting with better hours for the diner wouldn't have hurt, even if it was a much more limited menu during those hours.

I definitely think Amtrak needs to do what it can to maximize utility of the diner.
Some sort of counter service for some grilled items would be nice.

[mcgrath618]

http://chng.it/WYbMXDR9Y5

[STrRedWolf]

I was able to pull the full article from the WaPo this morning and make a PDF.

[David Benton]

Or is it a case of the rider not knowing the difference?
Like I say, I've met many coach passengers who didn't even know there was a full diner.

Regardless of any of the other changes, one of the things I think Amtrak failed at greatly in the past was actually advertising the diner.

I noticed this difference between my trips in the 1990's , and my trip in 2012.
In the 90's, There were diner menus in the seat pockets , and announcements for diner availability / bookings.
in 2012, I didn't see a menu in coach, and announcements maybe on 1/2 the trains.
Small sample , but I did notice it .

[eolesen]

He didn't build Delta into what it is today by ruining it. It's a far superior airline to UAL and AMR for a reason. His customer service initiatives were really good, and I'm surprised he hasn't done more. My initial dislike for him was because he didn't wade in and drop the hammer on basics like boarding, which is bloody awful.

Point of order... AMR is dead since the merger. It's now AAL, and a much different airline.

And to be fair, UAL has improved considerably from what they were a few years ago.

[Tadman]

Agreed, UAL is second place. AAL is third. I used "AMR" colloquially, they still suck it. I was on all three last week plus Jet Blue. AAL has managed to screw up my flight home two weeks in a row, last week we waited almost an hour for a gate at O'hare. What a crock. The pilot said "ah 3-5 minute wait no biggie" then went radio silent while the plane simmered with heat. Woof...

[ryanov]

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.

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.

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.