The SILVER STAR has finally regained a selection of proper hot entrees–although not a proper diner. A similar menu has also just been installed on the CITY OF NEW ORLEANS and the CARDINAL. Details for the SILVER STAR offerings are at https://cmsstage.amtrak.com/ccurl/295/142/Silver-Star-Cafe-Menu-0406.pdf .
For the other two trains meals are still “free” (built into the fare) in sleepers, while on the SILVER STAR all passengers will pay. The real question on the SILVER STAR is how the one person cafe car staff will cope with the added responsibilty to heat and serve hot meals. Already hour long-multi car lines are the norm at meal times on this train. Typically of the Boardman Amtrak, no staff is to be added. If the sleeper attendants help by preparing the meals for their passengers and bringing them back to the rooms, pressure may be eased.
This is a new style of micro-wave entree. The hot items are
Looking at what is offered on the CNO, all I can say is that it is a far cry from the King’s Dinner that was offered on the Panama.
Seeing the new menu for the Cardinal, I have no desire to ride this train again, despite the excellent scenery. The national menu is bad enough, especially when one is on a lenghthy trip but…
The southbound CONO leaves Chicago at 8:05pm, chances are most passengers will have already eaten. Northbound it arrives at 9:00am. Maybe you can justify hot service there but it’s still a gray area. I don’t think the lack of hot meal service here is that big a deal.
A train ticket is an expensive way to try out a new restaurant menu.
I don’t know why Boardman picked on the Star and the City, but I’m afraid the contagion is bound to spread elsewhere on LD. This summer, I’ll see what they’ve done to the Empire Builder (a modest Minot, ND -Whitefish, MT round trip surrounding a few days in Glacier).
In FY15 the long distance trains lost $514 million before depreciation and interest. This was an improvement over 2010, when the long distance trains lost $575.6 million.
According to a New York Times article dated August 2, 2012, Amtrak lost $834 million on its food and beverage services between 2002 and 2012. Amtrak’s Inspector General said that 87 per cent of the loss is attributable to the long distance train. The current loss is between $70 and $80 million per year, of which approximately $60.9 to $69.6 million can be hung on the long distance trains.
From FY09 through FY15 roughly 15 per cent of the long distance passengers booked a sleeper. The remaining 85 per cent roughed it out in a coach.
Most of the coach class passengers probably could care less about a sit down meal in the dining car. Especially when they get a look at the prices! A veggie burger goes for $11.50. It can be had in most El Paso restaurants for $8. With fries as opposed to chips on Amtrak! Even less in Alpine, TX.
The Superliner trains have a lounge car with eight tables on the upper level and four to six tables on the lower level. With a bit of ingenuity the meal needs of most of the passengers – 85 per cent in coach - could be met in these cars. The menu could be enhanced and a meal reservation system could be implemented. The coach attendant could be used to help with the meal service. And the sleeping car or business class attendant could pick-up eats for the passengers in those cars that did not want to go to the lounge car.
Or you could raise sleeper prices to to fully cover the price of thier meals with the additional amounts going to diner accounts. Personally I wouldn’t mind paying 30 to 40 dollars more for diners. I know this would offend many. The other route would be to lower sleeper prices and let first class passengers pay for thier meals separately. (
The idea a lounge car could substitute for a diner is kind of impractical. Most long distance trains of the past had Two levels of food service. A diner and club car.
The solution to the diner issue is making sure the passengers who are using the service ( first class passengers) are paying their fully allotted portion of their meals. If losses persist then maybe diners are no longer viable.
Everybody knows the jet plane has made every form of surface transportation “inefficient” for long distance. Old news. Yet, stubborn people persist in their preference for surface travel – by 90 percent, for all intercity trips.
This stubborn preference, mostly by private automobile, comes at a price of billions a year, which we cheerfully pay. Does that mean it’s OK to “waste” another $500 million on money-losing passenger trains? Most people on here would say yes. Rep. Mica and his crowd say no. (But what would they do with the savings?)
My point would be, if we’re going to run passenger trains – at a price that is quite modest, in the big scheme of things – let us run passenger trains, not Greyhound buses on rails, which would likely lose even more money.
As long as they are decently patronized, as most LD trains are, this is not money wasted. Any more than the expense to the taxpayers of Grandma and Grandpa’s annual “snowbird” car trip to Arizona and back is wasted.
Yes, and demand that all who eat in the Congressional dining rooms pay the full cost of their meals and not ask the taxpayers to subsidize the cost in the least.
Exactly! Not to get political, but it is ‘interesting’ that some conservative/libertarian types on here who oppose most federal government spending seem happy as clams to heavily subsidize 1950s style trains with traditional dining cars and sleepers and do not want to have those patrons pay the full cost.
When folks (like you who patronize LD trains) are forced to pay the full cost of sleepers and diners on Amtrak instead of expecting others to pay for you.
Schlimm, old buddy, you draw the line at our equivalent of the school-lunch program. Why so hard-hearted with Amtrak, when you are so big-hearted elsewhere?
In FY15 the long distance trains lost $514 million before depreciation and interest. This was an improvement over 2010, when the long distance trains lost $575.6 million.
According to a New York Times article dated August 2, 2012, Amtrak lost $834 million on its food and beverage services between 2002 and 2012. Amtrak’s Inspector General said that 87 per cent of the loss is attributable to the long distance train. The current loss is between $70 and $80 million per year, of which approximately $60.9 to $69.6 million can be hung on the long distance trains.
From FY09 through FY15 roughly 15 per cent of the long distance passengers booked a sleeper. The remaining 85 per cent roughed it out in a coach.
Most of the coach class passengers probably could care less about a sit down meal in the dining car. Especially when they get a look at the prices! A veggie burger goes for $11.50. It can be had in most El Paso restaurants for $8. With fries as opposed to chips on Amtrak! Even less in Alpine, TX.
The Superliner trains have a lounge car with eight tables on the upper level and four to six tables on the lower level. With a bit of ingenuity the meal needs of most of the passengers – 85 per cent in coach - could be met in these cars. The menu could be enhanced and a meal reservation system could be implemented. The coach attendant could be used to help with the meal service. And the sleeping car or business class attendant could pick-up eats for the passengers in those cars that did not want to go to the lounge car.
I don’t think diners will ever cover their costs. The issue is this, you can’t expect the public to subsidize granny dinner. Sleeping car passenger need to pay thier fair share, just like the coach. At that point, then a decision needs to be made if Amtrak needs to provide the service at additional loss. Bottom line LD trains will never break even, the additional cost needs to be covered. Diner less trains will never work. Its part of the train experience.
For your consideration: My wife has begun the habit of booking first-class airline seats when she makes our vacation reservations. It’s not that much more expensive if you book several months in advance like she does. One of the perks of first-class is a meal at your seat, which you can select a few weeks in advance. It isn’t the “dining car experience”, but the food is pretty good and while we don’t get china dishes, we do get real silverware and real glass for our drinks. A cafe-lounge with this sort of meal service might be a reasonable alternative to an expensive full-service dining car.