Amtrak Diner and Food Service Discussion

Right -- they've replaced the sleepers with day trains that are fast enough that people can leave early in the morning, have a mostly full business day, and return in the evening before midnight; and sleeping-car demand dried up. Unfortunately, day corridor trains at 79 mph won't do it, and so sleeper trains have been replaced here by airplanes.

In the UK the GWR franchise still offers full dining on 2 routes London Paddington to Penzance and Paddington Swansea.

Those are fairly lengthy routes by UK standards.

On the topic of the Amfleet IIs: when they were overhauled in the diner lite program, a steam table grill was installed, but never used because of FDA sanitary standards. Could be steam table be removed or re-configured to have a smaller, more practical grill? Something like a compact roller grill? Perhaps a phone call to George Forman could solve the problem...

This could allow fresh eggs and omelets made to order on an Amfleet II, not to mention burgers and some sandwiches.

Looking for info on overnight train services in Europe, I have found that meals are mainly served in your room. The sleeper attendant prepares and delivers all your meals and there is no dining car.

I wouldn't say the meals are very appealing.

Here is an example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTHRvENCd1o&t=30s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In the UK you apparently also can eat your meals in the lounge on some trains that don't have dining cars.

But this certainly doesn't mean we in North America have to do the same thing. The traditional railroad dining car is truly a unique experience. As mentioned by someone earlier, I bet a lot of male railfans have been able to convince their significant other to ride the rails mainly because of the pleasures of the dining car.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:On the topic of the Amfleet IIs: when they were overhauled in the diner lite program, a steam table grill was installed, but never used because of FDA sanitary standards. Could be steam table be removed or re-configured to have a smaller, more practical grill? Something like a compact roller grill? Perhaps a phone call to George Forman could solve the problem...

This could allow fresh eggs and omelets made to order on an Amfleet II, not to mention burgers and some sandwiches.

Would be nice indeed to have a grill, but in the meantime there are always this style of oven as seen in your local Subway: https://www.turbochef.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Since Amtrak’s losses are covered by taxpayers, I don’t think that we can or should support practices that result in excessive losses. If we do, than Amtrak becomes an easier target for the trainhaters of the world.

Amtrak definitely should provide quality hot meals, particularly if they are a necessary cost of generating high sleeping car fares. But in my experience, pre-plated meals like airline first class ones are totally fine.

Horrid-looking meals in the OBB Nightjet video, and cold meals proposed by Amtrak, are bad news and would probably harm revenue, but lavish dining cars with extensive staffs aren’t needed either.

^ +1

From the RPA website:

Management hopes to get the new-build CAF diners now accumulating in Florida out on the road and into service soon, but Gardner reports that those 11 diners now parked in Hialeah are awaiting parts and modification. Once they are completed, they can go into service.

Amtrak wants to improve the food offerings systemwide, and Anderson added that the railroad is prepared to spend more money on food to accomplish this. Gardner acknowledged that the Lake Shore/Capitol menu is a work in progress, noting that there is more to be done. Amtrak expects eventually to restore at least one hot-food option to that menu, as well as the ability for Coach passengers to buy meals from that menu in the diner or elsewhere.

https://www.railpassengers.org/happenin ... line-1068/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Perhaps we need alien to come and view the railjet video, and a Amtrak one, and guess which one is a socialist operation. I notice no-one in this capitalist utopia has suggested if passengers want their traditional dining car experience, they
should pay the full cost of it.

David Benton: Over the past 15 years or so during many trips aboard Amtrak and VIA long distance trains, I have met really interesting people from all over the world (including NZ!) simply by being seated with them in the dining car. Of course, I could use a airline but I am retired, I love to observe the country as we pass up close and personal through big and little cities and towns and above all, I totally enjoy meeting people. I would gladly pay for good meals, civilly served as once was the case aboard the Canadian with flowers on the table, candles at night, a steward to take drink orders, a chef of competency serving a fresh menu each meal and I would expect the price to be considerable: you get what you pay for. But, to be charged a rather hefty rate for a tiny room usually in a state of grunge and to put up with uncontrollable heat or AC and wafer thin blankets and be served low end food has gotten quite hard to accept, even for a passenger rail supporter. I have flown aboard Delta's new sleep seat planes to/from Europe and they were nice for a short (6+ hours) flight but certainly not for a two day train trip. So, I hope the former CEO of Delta can come up with some new ideas for train travel which match the materials & technology of the 21st Century without throwing out the essential positives of train travel.

David Benton wrote:Perhaps we need alien to come and view the railjet video, and a Amtrak one, and guess which one is a socialist operation. I notice no-one in this capitalist utopia has suggested if passengers want their traditional dining car experience, they
should pay the full cost of it.

That’s effectively my position. Since dining car meals are included in sleeping car fares, dining cars will not generate cash receipts to cover their costs, but if sleeping car fares cover the costs of lodging plus food, which I think they do, or would if a pre-plated hot meal service were offered, then sleeping car passengers are covering the costs of food services.

I agree,it is a good experience, and it would be pleasure to meet you all in the diner, or lounge. A communal space is perhaps missing on European trains. But I wouldn't count the current Amtrak food as hugely better than what is on offer in preparation cooked situations. It seems the sticking point is the lack of hot entrees.

I’ve been a vegetarian for a few years now but make the occasional exception. I was on the Silver Meteor last week and saw someone eating a steak and went for one. It was really excellent — would have been a solid entrant even were it not on a train. It’s disappointing that continuing to have decent food on the train and to pay people to make is just “a bridge too far.” Meanwhile, if the expenditure is required to make something explode overseas, unlimited funding is available. I said this to another person on this board years ago who was arguing that this service needs to lose less money: per person in this country, it’s a pittance. Time to tell the people who are holding Amtrak to this ridiculous standard that that is not what we want them to do. Again, this is the board for people who SUPPORT trains?

I'm in Chicagoland enjoying Union, LaSalle St, and Dearborn Stations, along with the Amtrak coach years and a couple of trains.

I'll sort this out in a day or so.

CLOSED UNTIL THIS MESS GETS TO A COACH YARD.

SITE ADMIN: Clean up aisle 46. Certainly there is room for an historical discussion here and comparisons to current service... but can we keep race out of it? I don’t think it’s relevant to the discussion and it inevitably leads to a back and forth battle on racism. That may well be a worthwhile discussion but not here. Thanks.