METRA plan to add Cafe Cars

[n012944]

@charlie_hebdo2

believe that might be just an industry average. Likely that median has a high std dev.

I am not sure about a mall sandwich shop, however my wife owns two sports bars. One has a general manager, and the labor goal there is 30% of sales, the other one does not have a GM, and the goal there is 25%.

[charlie_hebdo2]

The key factor is what method requires more cognitive processing. Merely transcribing requires less than active summarizing of key points in note-taking. Whether the note-taking was in cursive or hand printed is largely irrelevant.

Your business class members would have been better served taking their own notes.

[charlie_hebdo2]

Thanks for the information. The 22% was a number CMStP posted. He once discussed the trials and tribulations of owning a sandwich shop in TX. Judging by the data, the 22% is an average for labor costs. I suspect that number is higher for Amtrak food and beverage, but that’s just a guess

[CMStPnP]

@BaltACD

I suspect the practice of having the customer fill out the Order check on Dining Cars likely emanated from the racist practices following the Civil War with the supposition that black dining car personnel were not able to read or write. In as much as it took until 1965 for the Civil Rights Act to be enacted, racism was alive and well until then and it has carried on in many instances to todays race relations.

I can believe that. Lost Cause movement or one of it’s ancillary groups…strikes again.

[JL_Chicago]

@charlie_hebdo2

Dining car wage on Amtrak, according to Google AI: $21 to $26.35 per hour.

Given the increasing number of incidents of bad behavior by traveling passengers, perhaps wise to eliminate serving alcohol on trains?

If those are accurate then they’re reasonable. I doubt they’d eliminate alcohol sales. Bad behavior is caused by alcoholism and they’ll get their alcohol anyway by concealing it.

[JL_Chicago]

@Woke_Hoagland

@JL_Chicago

I actually experienced it not in the 60s but in the 2000s when Iowa Pacific for a short time ran extra cars on the former IC Amtrak lines.

A point to remember is that the service was disastrously and ruinously uneconomical once the novelty wore off. I was among the first to say this was an attractive idea, and I still wonder if it could be adapted to the full-sleeper service model (a la Rocky Mountaineer and other cruise-like train experiences) but oh brother! what a disaster the Iowa Pacific turned out to have…

Oh yes. The fair RT to Carbondale from Chicago was probably less than what the Kings Dinner cost in the 60s inflation adjusted. I’m pretty sure my fare was less than $100 RT. Including the dinner.

I liked Ed Ellis CEO of IP but I doubt anyone would have considered him a finance wiz.

That train to New Orleans lasted what? A year or two?

[JL_Chicago]

@charlie_hebdo2

As to a fine or less-than-fine dining experience on an Amtrak LD train: I don’t think taxpayers are going to subsidize that for people who expect to pay $20 for that dinner.

Does Brightline offer fine dining? Any food service?

I only rode when they ran Miami to Palm Beach but yes they had full drink menu and snacks and sandwiches.

[BaltACD]

@JL_Chicago

If those are accurate then they’re reasonable. I doubt they’d eliminate alcohol sales. Bad behavior is caused by alcoholism and they’ll get their alcohol anyway by concealing it.

Bad behavior has been cause for passengers to be removed from the trains for over a century. When I was working, various Amtrak trains would request local authorities to meet their train at specific road crossings to assist in the removal of the passenger who would also have charges filed against the. Middle of the night in the middle of nowhere can be very sobering.

[JL_Chicago]

@Woke_Hoagland

@charlie_hebdo2

It’s simple (hard to make an error) and very efficient in that the waiter didn’t have to spend time trying to hear your order in a crowded and somewhat noisy car.

I tremble to think what the future might be in a world that is no longer teaching children cursive handwriting…

The probable answer for people with smart devices is an app that lets them check their preferences, perhaps after scanning a QR code on a menu, and then forwards the order to the crew to be prepared and served. For people with no device, one of the order-entry terminals now commercially available (as presently used at Red Robin, for instance) might be used for order entry and for payment since I believe Amtrak has ‘transitioned’ to a no-cash policy.

I developed a system for Waffle House that provided a handheld book of e-paper checks in place of their paper books: the order was taken with a stylus instead of a pencil, did handwriting OCR, and put the order in for cooking; when the book was filled out, the pages could be erased for re-use. A tablet version for passengers to complete, using a form, might be used in place of paper tickets.

Many restaurants now that’s how you order. At first I preferred paper. Now I use the phone no issues. Some let you pay on the phone too. Others for some reason still collect credit cards.

[PJS1]

I too have ridden Brightline from Miami to West Palm Beach and return. I had a good sandwich and glass of wine. It was delivered to my seat by an attendant. I was in Premium Class; the food and drink were complimentary. It was probably included in the premium fare.

[CMStPnP]

@JL_Chicago

If those are accurate then they’re reasonable. I doubt they’d eliminate alcohol sales. Bad behavior is caused by alcoholism and they’ll get their alcohol anyway by concealing it

Hourly wage is not the total cost of Labor on a Dining Car for an Amtrak employee. Dining Car with full kitchen?..Cha-Ching. Note that it is rare for a regular Amtrak employee to step foot in the kitchen unless they are trained in food prep. At least I have not seen that. Kitchen must be maintained to a standard and is inspected no doubt on a regular basis without formal announcement. Insurance on employees involved in food prep is higher if you use risk appliances like deep fryer, griddle, etc.

[CMStPnP]

@PJS1

I too have ridden Brightline from Miami to West Palm Beach and return. I had a good sandwich and glass of wine. It was delivered to my seat by an attendant. I was in Premium Class; the food and drink were complimentary. It was probably included in the premium fare.

Outsourced to local vendors no doubt. Handing you a pre-packaged sandwich probably negates the need for a food handling course requirement via Health department regulations. Which cuts costs and is cheaper then food prep on a dining car. Workman’s comp insurance is probably cheaper with no electrical heated elements involved in food prep though I am pretty confident Brightline is smart enough not to maintain a nationwide commissary system and is just handing you a sandwich a third party made locally. I suspect that is one of the dodges of Firehouse Subs and why they use boiled water to heat their subs vs electric grills.

[CMStPnP]

@n012944

I am not sure about a mall sandwich shop, however my wife owns two sports bars. One has a general manager, and the labor goal there is 30% of sales, the other one does not have a GM, and the goal there is 25%.

Different metric. Mine was not per total sales. Mine was per edible item made. So mine was total cost of prepped food item. Your wife is selling Liquor at her places of business and it is probably the main sold item given it is a Bar very significant expansion of margin just with that item, which explains the 30%. There is some care that needs to be taken obviously with the pick of Manager with a liquor license and if that is a good part of your sales. With my limited experience as a Hotel Auditor, Liquor and Food were costed and tracked separately. I have no clue how a Sports Bar would do it. I would imagine both would be tracked separately because if you over pour liquor you will run into financial trouble a lot faster than if you do not manage the portion control of the food.

[BaltACD]

METRA plan to add Cafe Cars

My cursive was bad, so I learned to print legibly and fast, got approval to do so from an enlightened 4th grade teacher, Miss Riley. This was in the 1950s. I printed from them on, through high school, university and doctorate with no difficulties, either in writing tests and essays, taking voluminous class notes or cognitive growth, apparently. The early PCs (mine was a Sanyo) was essential in grad school as I was a poor typist. My initial word processing program was WordStar!

My cursive was decent - readable. However, as I have aged it gets worse each year. It is even worse when I have to write on one the screens with a stylus. The stylus and screen don’t have the normal ‘drag’ or resistance that writing with pen or pencil and paper.

For most all of the device signatures - they get my MARK.

[Woke_Hoagland]

[quote=“CMStPnP, post:92, topic:415393”]I suspect that is one of the dodges of Firehouse Subs and why they use boiled water to heat their subs vs electric grills.
[/quote]

Do not suspect: it is. It’s the same premise as Subway: they can fit a franchise in a standard 20’ storefront without special vents, stacks, grease traps, or fire suppression. As far as I know, Firehouse was the first to use portion-control sous-vide for sandwiches. I find them too cold by the time I am ready to eat them, so I’m the wrong customer for the ‘house style’.

[BaltACD]

@Woke_Hoagland

I find them too cold by the time I am ready to eat them, so I’m the wrong customer for the ‘house style’.

Never been a big fan of hot sandwiches.

[JL_Chicago]

@PJS1

I too have ridden Brightline from Miami to West Palm Beach and return. I had a good sandwich and glass of wine. It was delivered to my seat by an attendant. I was in Premium Class; the food and drink were complimentary. It was probably included in the premium fare.

I was in standard but similar/same options just had to pay. It was quite good.

[charlie_hebdo2]

@JL_Chicago

Bad behavior is caused by alcoholism and they’ll get their alcohol anyway by concealing it.

Not necessarily so.

[Woke_Hoagland]

The operational question for the Metra cafe cars is: can the staff effectively gauge who should, and who should not, be served alcoholic drinks – and will they be backed up if they choose not to serve a particular patron?

Perhaps restricting the ‘alcohol’ to relatively low-impact drinks like beer or wine coolers might be an intermediate step. Many years ago, I thought that ‘registering’ patrons to be able to order or receive different beverages as “regulars” might be workable; that is far more practical in an age of cell phones and individual “ID” coding in transit passes…

(Of passing interest: crApple autocorrects ‘Metra’ to ‘METRA’…)

[zugmann]

Metra. Not on mine.

Seems like it’d be easier just not to get involved in selling alcohol. Keep the cafe car for simple, all age, grab-n-go prepackaged items.
As far QR codes and online ordering - there’s still people scared of using the McDs or taco bell kiosks.

And I don’t understand people that won’t use the app to order, yet still insist on the person scanning their app so they get the points. They confuse me.