WASHINGTON — For sleeping car passengers on two Amtrak routes between Chicago and the East Coast, it appears dining innovation is a dish best served cold. In a press release issued Thursday, Amtrak announced “contemporary and fresh dining…
Well, this is good news! Paying passengers will no longer have to wonder when the new Viewliner diners will finally be in service on the Lake Shore Limited because the answer is “never.” These now-unneeded dining cars may be converted at probably modest cost into coaches.
Futher benefits: Passengers will no longer have to endure moving to another car to eat their meals, only to find total strangers seated at their table. The dangers of hot food will be eliminated. Bonus: Passengers will now enjoy contemporary cold cuisine instead of the stodgy traditional dining and hospitality.
National benefit: Amtrak will at last save enormous amounts of money; this will enable it to finally make a profit and earn the approval of a conservative-led Congress which has recently shown again its devotion to fiscal responsibility.
Operational benefit: The inevitable fewer passengers will soon obviate the need for more than one sleeper and a coach or two. Another big savings here.
Question: Which pizza shops in Rensselaer deliver to the trains at the railroad station?
Even the airlines can provide a warm dinner.
Bob Dorsch, Amtrak’s vice president of the Long Distance Service Line, is quoted in the release as saying, “Our continued success depends on increasing customer satisfaction while becoming more efficient,” and that Amtrak looks forward to hearing from its customers about the change
US Taxpayers actually pay this clown?
It’s over…move to Denmark.
“Increase customer satisfaction by serving cold meals”?
My wife and I were subjected to the cold meals served on the Portland section of the Empire Builder; we did not complain for we had the hot meal service east of Spokane. (Oh, for the meal service that the SP&S provided into Portland!)
However, the idea of no longer having a diner on the New York-Chicago and the Washington-Chicago service is an atrocious idea. One of the pleasures of traveling first class has been that of eating a hot meal in the diner–in company with other diners who, often, provide pleasant conversation.
Incidentally, have all of the old single-level diners been retired? I ate on a Viewliner Diner on the Crescent on my latest trip (this month).
Deggesty, please don’t refer to what Amtrak provides as “First Class”. Maybe that’s what it was properly called back in the day, but now the designation “Sleeper Class” would be more appropriate. The service on Amtrak that comes closest to true first class is offered on Acela Express First Class. And, it includes hot meals!
Dude, you are right that the best Amtrak now offers is not really comparable to the former first class service. The sleeping compartments are smaller, and it is not as easy for a passenger in a roomette to get his berth down and back up as it was. The only thing going for the Amtrak bedrooms is the private shower.
Acela is the best Amtrak offers–but, to me, it does not compare well with the rotating, reclining parlor seats of old. The meal service is passable, but I found VIA’s VIA 1 (which is now called “business”) service much better.
Also, no longer is there one fare from Chicago to Los Angeles no matter which route you take (a stopover in Grand Canyon did cost more); fares on the Texas Eagle are higher than those on the Southwest Chief. Incidentally, Pullman space charges were the same (except for the Grand Canyon stopover), whether you took two nights or three nights to make the trip.
I’m OK with the change and to me it appears to be a innovative move financially. Wow, I used Amtrak and “Innovative” in the same post.
Any fast food restaurant and even many food trucks can get you a hot meal. Amtrak has sunk to a new low. Perhaps the congressional cafeteria should only serve cold food to show how financially concerned they are.
Good one Midland Mike…bravo!
A move in the correct direction. Diner service on these trains is lousy. Meals are overpriced. As a business, one has to be adapted and open to change. What worked 20 yrs ago may no longer be useful today. With high priced meals and food that is not all that good to begin with, fewer passengers are using the dining cars. Hope this new food service method is put in use on all long distance trains.
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Hopefully the fall election’s will solve some of these issues and restore funding that Amtrak needs to operate.
Sounds like Anderson is intent on managing Amtrak like a real business. And that is innovative.
If I were Anderson I would get rid of the dining cars and sleepers. I would convert the sleepers to business class cars with pods similar to those found on international flights and upgrade the lounge car menus to include cold meals as well as whatever can be heated up in a microwave.
I cannot think of a successful business that wants to do things just like they were done in the 1950s. But that’s what those who insist on no changes to the long-distance trains seem to be saying.
Eighty-five percent of the long-distance trains passengers ride coach class. I doubt that a sit-down meal in the dining car is high on their priority list.
Maybe the engineer can make a few bucks heating up passengers’ meals on the engine block?
And stopping so his assistant can pick road kill up and butcher it?
This is a service downgrade, plain and simple. At least when they whacked the diner off the Star, they cut prices on the sleeping car (since meals are technically included in the fare.
Are the sleeping cars a bigger money loser than coach? I would think the opposite when rooms can approach $1k on popul
The same conventional wisdom that led to the shock of 2016, will lead to the shock of 2018. It will be worth twice the snickering though if you ask me because again those that want the status quo will be again be shocked the country has changed and is tired of it.
I find it rather disconcerting that nobody was offended at how Brightline was treated by Congress this week. Apparently Congress feels that passenger rail operations should not be privately run either. A very clear bias that the highway lobby is in control. I would think all railfans would jump on but was met with a rather curious silence in these forums and a ho-hum.
Oh CMStPnP, they’re still all worked up over not being able to go down to the station and get a timetable or able to get hot pancakes in the diner. They haven’t gotten to the things that really matter. And I doubt they ever will.
They need a pancake machine like at Holiday Inn Express.
Didn’t the railroads run their passenger trains like a business? How did that work out for them?
So you cannot think of a successful business that wants to do things just like they were done in the 1950s. Is Greyhound still in business?