I ll be taking Amtrak auto train round trip next week. I haven’t been on the train for 3 years. Has the service been down graded at all or on par with service from a few years back?
No lounge car. No wine and cheese on boarding.
Wow no lounge car… Dam best place to be when we rolling thru Jacksonville South bound, watch the train curve around the wye. The good about the same?
Don looks like the lounge cars have returned. One each for the coach and sleeper sections.
Lounge cars were never eliminated, although there was a brief period when there was only one lounge to serve the entire train, which sometimes carries as many as 600 passengers. The lounge for the coach section was never eliminated. The one for the sleeper section was soon restored when it became obvious that its removal had been unwise.
Amenites in the lounge cars have been reduced as a result of demands for more cost reductions. The complimentary wine and cheese tastings for sleeper passengers are things of the past.
The food is still good, but some of the more expensive options have been eliminated. The crews would prefer to serve you the kinds of things they did in the past, but they do a good job with what they have to work with. You said your last trip was three years ago. Many (probably most) of the same chefs are still there, and they are still doing their best. But their options are more limited as a result of decisions made way above their pay grade.
Sorry I didn’t see this item until after your trip & was unable to give a timely response. Hope you had a good trip.
Tom
Those exist now in the First Class Lounges of Chicago Union Station and elsewhere. I spent $20 to stay in the Burlington room in CUS and started to snicker when they rolled out the complimentary wine and cheese tasting session.
He-he-he-he.[:D]
I’ve heard about amenities remaining on offer in some places, but Chicago is not under the control of the same managers as Auto Train. One explanation I have heard is that the Southern Region managers believe Auto Train is a guaranteed cash cow with or without the amenities, and there is nothing to be gained by offering them. I can’t guarantee that this truly represents their thinking.
Tom
(edited slightly)
The trip was great the dinner was good. Breakfast was basically packaged food which was equivalent to getting food to at 7-11.
The crews were old hands, they were embarrassed, not with food as much but more of having to serve it on plastic plates and selling wine then serving it plastic cups. They missed the wine and cheese days but know they won’t come back.
The have met with wick and they know he feels that food service is essential to not only auto train but all medium and long distance trains.
My fellow sleeping car passenger were clearly not happy with the cut backs. Most like my self could careless about the wine and cheese. How ever thiers a threshold that could deter even the long term snow birds. Even Delta airlines is bring back food on long distances domestic flights.
Sundays # 52 was carrying 380 passengers, about 3/4 full. # 53 was returning North Monday with 200 passengers.
It’s clear that this is not a peak time a year for at. But even Amtrak on board crews and Amtrak management knows the cut back have not been good.
The one thing Amtrak’s hand to mouth existance in providing passenger service that is overlooked by the bean counters making decisions is SERVICE.
Service is more than just someone doing their job - service is also a style in which that job is performed. Plastic plates and silverware are fine for McD’s and the ilk. Food service doesn’t need to be Ritz Carleton quality but it needs to be at least Applebee’s if not better.
Food service in Class 1 days was never a profit center - it was public relations with the shippers and their employees and was done to gain favor and thereby increased tonnages shipped. With Amtrak the public relations aspect doesn’t exist as Amtrak doesn’t carry freight - but good service entices passengers to use Amtrak again - bad service turns them away in droves.
I know the old hands are embarrassed to be forced to provide service at this level. I’ve talked to them. While I don’t have specific comparative figures for other years, I can tell you that the passenger counts recently have been well below historic levels for the same time of year in years past. My source is a number of long-time Auto Train employees who are still on the job. They continue to do their best with the resources provided to them.
Tom
With all the repeat passenger on Auto Train how many will not return for years until they become aware that service has returned to previous values ?
In FY16 the Auto Train carried 238,448 passengers, down from 271,622 in FY15. In FY10 the train carried 244,955 passengers. The maximum number of passengers carried between 2010 and 2016 was 274,445 in 2014.
In 2010 the Auto Train had an operating loss of $300,000; in 2015 it had an operating profit of $2.1 million; in 2016 it had an operating loss of $1.8 million. In 2014 it had an operating loss of $1.8 million, which is the same loss that it incurred in 2016 while carrying fewer passengers.
Amtrak’s executive management, with board concurrence, unless it abrogates its responsibilities, which is unlikely, decides what food and beverage services to offer on its trains.
Amtrak’s cost accountants provide a a range of cost scenarios for Amtrak’s executive management to consider in deciding what level of service to offer on its trains.
The accountants do not decide what level of service will be offered. That is executive management’s call. Their decisions are restricted to the application of generally accepted management accounting (cost accounting) standards to the issue at hand.
Right, the bean counters don’t decide exactly how to achieve goals. That is up to Executive Managers for the specific services. There was a major change in Management personnel controlling the Auto Train at the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014. The train’s traditional clientele returned that year and traveled as they had always done, supplemented by even more passengers who were riding because they had heard of the train’s great reputation. That accounts for the very high numbers in 2014
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JPS1
ACY
…I don’t have specific comparative figures for other years, I can tell you that the passenger counts recently have been well below historic levels for the same time of year in years past. Tom
In FY16 the Auto Train carried 238,448 passengers, down from 271,622 in FY15. In FY10 the train carried 244,955 passengers. The maximum number of passengers carried between 2010 and 2016 was 274,445 in 2014.
In 2010 the Auto Train had an operating loss of $300,000; in 2015 it had an operating profit of $2.1 million; in 2016 it had an operating loss of $1.8 million. In 2014 it had an operating loss of $1.8 million, which is the same loss that it incurred in 2016 while carrying fewer passengers.
Amtrak’s cost accountants provide a a range of cost scenarios for Amtrak’s executive management to consider in deciding what level of service to offer on its trains. ountants do not decide what level of service will be offered. That is executive management’s call. Their decisions are restricted to the application of generally accepted management accounting (cost accounting) standards to the issue at hand.
Right, the bean counters don’t decide exactly how to achieve goals. That is up to Executive Managers for the specific services. There was a major change in Management personnel controlling the Auto Train at the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014. The train’s traditional clie
Most Auto Train crew members will agree with you, Robert. If you jack up prices and cut service levels beyond a certain point, you will eventually, inevitably, get to the point where nobody will use your service by choice. Your sole clientele will be those who have absolutely no other choice, and that is not a sustainable model for much of anything.
Nowadays, there are so many other options available that it is ridiculous to think that way. People can drive, pay somebody else to drive them, take a bus or plane, and possibly even take a boat. They can have their car shipped by highway trailer, rent a car at their destination, borrow a friend’s car, rely on busses or taxis, or even buy a used second car to use for a few months while they are in Florida. They have traditionally used the train because it is convenient and the service levels have been high enough in the past to justify the price.
If you continue to cut service and raise the price, the convenience becomes less attractive and the result is inevitable.
Tom
In 2016 the passenger count for the Auto Train, as noted, decreased 12.2 percent.
All the Florida trains had a decrease in riders in 2016 compared to 2015. The Silver Star saw 5 percent fewer passengers; the Silver Meteor 1.9 percent. Moreover, all of the north/south long distance trains had a decrease in riders. It was 2.5 percent for the City of New Orleans; 3.5 percent for the Texas Eagle, 4.8 percent for the Crescent and .6 percent for the Coast Starlight. The only north/south long distance train to buck the trend was the Palmetto. It had an 82.5 percent increase in riders.
Sleeping car passengers on the Auto Train declined 9.7 percent. The Silver Star saw an increase of 7.5 percent in sleeping car passengers while the Silver Meteor had a decrease of 3.7 percent. The City of New Orleans sleeping car passengers decreased 4.8 percent; the Texas Eagle decreased 12.2 percent, and the Coast Starlight decreased .2 percent. The Crescent saw an increase in sleeping car passengers of .7 percent.
Numerous factors contribute to changes in ridership over time. Food and beverage service probably is a contributor. But other factors, such as the price of the service in comparison to the price of alternative modes of travel, probably play a more significant role. It would take some serious data mining and analysis to isolate the reasons ridership on the Auto Train, as well as the other north/south long dist
Exactly
As I have said, Management changed around the end of 2013, and instituted changes at the beginning of 2014. Veteran passengers returned to the train along with new customers during 2014, so the numbers remained solid during that year. The new managers were elated, and thought they deserved credit for the high passenger counts. But the passengers saw the cuts in service, and many did not return in subsequent years. Those of us in direct passenger service saw this as it was happening, and predicted the outcome. That’s when I retired at the age of 67, even though I would have been better off financially if I had stayed on a bit longer. The decline has continued. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out cause and effect.
Tom
exactly
Beginning in their mid 60s my parents, along with five other couples, went to Florida for six weeks every winter. Over time the gang, as the called themselves, dwindled due to deaths and illnesses.
My impression is that many of the Auto Trains passengers are retirees. If this is true, I wonder how many of them did not return because of deaths and illnesses?
Elimination of wine and cheese, as well as serving wine in plastic glasses and food on plastic plates, caused a decrease of an average of 45 customers per day per train? Of this number 15 were sleeping car passengers, who might have decided on another option because they felt the service did not justify the price, but I suspect other factors, i.e. cheap gasoline, low air fares, etc. played an equally important role.