Amtrak Diner and Food Service Discussion

Boston and Baton Rouge reportedly have been picked up and are on the road.

If delivery is occurring by the numbers, that means six V-Chows (4 A's, 2 B's) plus prototype "I" are or will soon be on the property. While unlikely, but at least "on paper", Amtrak could retire all "H-D's" from yhe two trains, Crescent and Meteor, they are presently assigned - and this would require one such car to make a same-day turn at SSY.

Get another two (Charleston and Columbia?), and there would be adequate "short run" protection.

Nope, Annapolis, Augusta, Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Beantown, and Indy are now on the property. Six total, one A, Albany is not on the property and is speculated to be the last of the diners to be delivered.
Nick

Wednesday's train 97 Silver Meteor had AMTK 8400 Indianapolis for the dining car and had newcomers Baton Rouge and Boston deadheading to Hialeah for acceptance testing.

"At last ... " ...

My hope springs eternal that Amtrak will realize some significant ($5m +/-) savings in operating costs from full and final retirement of the Heritage diners.

Colonel Perkowski has asked that we stay on the topic of Amtrak, but I do believe that having on-board services go cash free is perfectly reasonable and to draw on practices at other industries to illustrate points is within the scope of discussion. This article appearing today in The Times certainly suggests that "cash free is trending" - even amongst Millennials:

http://nytimes.com/2017/12/25/nyregion/ ... -card.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair Use:

...The other day at Dig Inn, a just-opened lunch spot on Broadway and 38th Street in Midtown Manhattan, Shania Bryant committed a consumer faux pas. She placed her order for chicken and brown rice and yams, and when she got to the register, she held out a $50 bill.

“Sorry,” the cashier told her. “We don’t take cash.” Not, “We don’t take $50s.” No cash. Period.

“What?” Ms. Bryant asked.

The cashier patiently explained. Credit and debit cards were fine, as was the easy-to-download Dig Inn phone app. But the almighty dollar was powerless.

“I’ve never experienced that before,” said Ms. Bryant, 20, an assistant to a designer. “I guess we’re in new times

Returning to Amtrak, they surely have compiled to what extent their on board sales are settled with cash. They likely have done demographic studies of their passenger base determining to what extent they could qualify for a credit, or even a debit, card.

I think that if Amtrak were to widely disseminate that they were going cash free at least for on board (can you even pay cash for an airline ticket anymore?), the inconvenience would be minimal.

Based on my non-scientific observations of Amtrak customers in an unstaffed station before boarding a long-distance train, even if long-distance coach passengers can't qualify for a credit card, they all have smartphones. So Amtrak should allow payment with Apple Pay or whatever phone payment systems are out there.

I agree with Mr. Norman that there should be a minimal impact for Amtrak diner service to go cashless. And from a "cash control" perspective, highly sought after by the financial folks at Amtrak. One can still observe a wad of cash being handled in the diner.....an accountant's nightmare.....

When absolutely anybody can walk into a corner store and buy a pre-paid debit card, qualification is not the issue; There is not a person living in the United States who cannot qualify. The issue is not access to a debit card but a question of customer service and convenience.

That said, so long as you control for possible theft or loss of cash, I still see little benefit to a cashless diner, and frankly don't understand the obsession with it here. Indeed, the "no cash" restaurant referenced above is curious, as over Christmas I saw a couple places in the mall with a surcharge for credit or debit card use ("due to rising processing fees").

Control of cash is the VERY issue, Mr. Grove.

Mr JP and I are fellow CPA's (we know one another face to face); when either of us, and surely others within our brethren, see a loosely supervised employee walking around with a wad of bills, we wonder "why"? What can be done about it? No longer could a Dining Car report condemmage of a food item, use it for cash meals and pocket it. No longer could a Snack Bar Attendant buy his own beer and soda pop (even 1.6oz minis), sneak it aboard, and pocket the sales (just don't "go overboard").

Hate to say it, but "undue temptation" has been cited by Employee Representatives at "fair and impartial hearings", and gotten assessed disciplines reduced.

So far as I'm concerned, there is no need for any OBS employee to have Amtrak cash in their possession, and if really worked at, no need for a Conductor to have same.

One problem is credit card servicing fees Total passenger revenue for FY 2016 was $2.3B now if the credit card kick back is noted at ~ 3% then that is ~~ $69 M lost to credit card fees

Mr. East Point, processing fees are not a problem; they are simply a cost of doing business that every retailer accepts - and prices the product or service to reflect such.

Obviously, you can still buy an Amtrak ticket for cash; I'm not sure if you can an airline ticket for same. As I have learned, some of the "bottom feeding" airlines such as Allegiant and Spirit, will send you to a currency exchange to buy a cash ticket. They don't want that crud around their facilities, and by the same token, Amtrak should not want any more than absolutely necessary around theirs.

There are side benefits; on a flight during October, RIC-ORD, Express Jet Airlines (masquerading as United) , never billed me for two "Grape Juices". That's $15.98 to the good, which they ever bill me, "I'm good for it".

disclaimer: author lives "cash free". There were no out of town trips this month, so the only time there was cash on his person was to do laundry ($11.50) and a haircut ($20). Author further went into town for a Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert this month with $0 cash in his pocket.

east point wrote:One problem is credit card servicing fees Total passenger revenue for FY 2016 was $2.3B now if the credit card kick back is noted at ~ 3% then that is ~~ $69 M lost to credit card fees

Among US retailers, around $40 billion a year is lost due to cash theft (comprising both employees and stickups). Total retail sales are about $5 trillion, across cash, credit, and checks. Only about a fifth of those are cash, so about 4% of the cash that gets handed over gets stolen. On top of that, banks generally charge a 1-2% fee to large businesses for cash management, an armored car will typically cost another 1% or so (it's a fixed cost, typically around $100 per pickup... among the chains I'm familiar with, if the daily cash take is less than $5-7k, the practice is to have the manager or assistant manager transport the cash to the bank in their private vehicle or on foot, and a nontrivial number of those managers will keep a day's float in their personal account... loss prevention managers see a lot...), and then you have non-theft cash shrinkage (counterfeiting, a $20 going in the $10 slot of the till, etc.). If you're taking cash at scale, you basically budget to lose 3% if you can keep a tight-enough control to prevent theft. With the looser cash controls on board, I'd say it's probably a minor miracle if Amtrak nets 85 cents of every dollar in cash handed over.

Amtrak dining (and cafe) cars, unlike fixed restaurants, have an issue to contend with: spotty cell network service. A restaurant PoS unit will instantly be able to return whether a card is valid. On board a train, if you're in a tunnel, mountains, or what seemed like the entire state of New Mexico, there might not be a way to connect to a network and immediately validate a card. Or worse, like Mr Norman's two beverages, legitimate charges that get lost in the shuffle.

Simple solution: to get a cash-free diner, sell diner vouchers in the cafe or online, accepting any form of legal American tender (or Canadian where applicable). One point of cash management is better than two.