I hope Wick takes the Northbound City of New Orleans soon and tries the delicious microwaved all-starch entrees. I rode it this summer and was unaware they had discontinued the full diner, chef, etc. The food we were served was uneatable.
Inedible? You left the car after one taste? The SB menu, though limited, seems quite different.
I think I’ve riden that route both ways twice in the last few years. The track taken as a whole is the roughest ride I’ve encountered on any of the class I’s. I’m not at all sure you could keep a diner style dinner on the table long enough to consume it; it would sure be an adventure.
Hmm, when I rode from Chicago to New Orleans a year and a half ago, I did not notice that the track was particularly rough. However, when I took the Crescent both south and north between Washington and Charlotte last month, I had the roughest ride ever, in all of my travels, between Charlottesville and Charlotte, as my berth rocked from head to toe and back.
I’m no fan of menu standardization, but on a train named after a great food city there should be more options.
On the modest San Joaquin, the Cafe Car just has microwave items. The ‘special’ sandwich is often thinly sliced roast beef which usually turns out fine. This decent menu could be improved if you look beyond wheat (gummy/tough gluten) containing items - think rice, corn (tortillas), beans, etc. Pozole / hominy stew is dead simple to make, freezes and reheats well.
LD trains mostly run on freight tracks, which are not maintained to passenger standards. Freights are much heavier and harder on track than in the 50s and even 60s.
One exception that we are aware of and there may be others. Capitol corridor actually pays for a surfacing crew to maintain route to passenger specs. So one time UP does the surfacing and one time CC does it ?
I will let older and wiser heads correct me, but it was my impression that pre Amtrak railroads partly considered their passenger trains to be a kind of advertisement for their freight trains; if an executive for XYZ electronics rode from New York to Chicago on the Twentieth Century and had a smooth ride and an on time arrival it would give him confidence that a boxcar of television sets on the same route would get similar treatment. Now that class ones are only interested in unit trains I guess they figure coal or grain are not ride quality sensitive.
I had no personal experience on this, but from what I read, under Tom Downs (1995 +/- ?) the individual routes were free to set their own menus to a certain extent and tailored them to local preferences. Does anyone know of this?
I recently rode the Sunset Limited from Tucson to El Paso. I had a seat in an economy room, and I ate lunch in the diner.
I chose the Chef’s Marketplace Special. It consisted of sliced turkey breast with Portobello mushroom sauce on a biscuit with buttery mashed potatoes. It was tasty. And at 470 calories it did minimum damage to the waistline.
As is true for most of the food served on Amtrak, the dish that I ordered was prepared off the train and heated in the dining car. One would think that it would not be a big deal to offer it on the City of New Orleans if there were sufficient demand for it.
Amtrak is under the gun to cut the cost of its food and beverage services. One way to do that is through standardization. Accordingly, I suspect that the menus in the long distance dining cars are set by management in Washington, with some input from field operations.
I rode it in July and southbound was sandwiches for dinner, hot breakfast and the same sandwiches for lunch. Northbound was hot dinner and it wasn’t bad, comprable to a microwave dinner or what airlines used to serve. I enjoyed it OK, even if it wasn’t what I was expecting. I did not know the regular diner had been cut until after I boarded.
I did notice the rough ride, one of the worst I had ever been on Heard that CN does not bother to keep the tracks as nice as IC did Rode that route years ago with parents in coach and don’t remember being thrown around like I was this time. Had to be careful going between cars as they swayed but my sleeper was next to diner so not far to walk. I did notice the sleeper bouncing more but this was my first ride in roomette and your bed is over the wheels, just like I experienced years ago on CP Canadian. The bedrooms only have your feet over the wheels. But I was still able to sleep. Our attendant, Rion, told us a lot of things to watch for as we got closer to NOLA and played Johnny Cash singing City of NOLA for us. My fav is Arlo Guthrie but that was a nice idea.
Talking about having a problem riding in a diner with the bouncing, reminded me of riding with parents on City of St. L, UP portion in WY. We were in diner and waiters were dropping dishes and spilling food. Dad knew something had to be up because they were used to doing this work. Went into dome car after dinner and talked to a guy who was clocking the mileposts and we were doing 100 mph. Dad knew that was why the waiters were so clumsy, not used to traveling that fast, we were running late and hogger was making up time. UP passenger on UP rails, open the throttle and let her run. High speed rail before we heard talk about it.
From what Sunnyland says about the ride on the mainline of the former Mainline of Mid America, I am glad that I am not plannig to go between Chicago and New Orleans again unless through service between Orlando and Chicago is instituted.
I do hope that NS will do something about the track south of Charlot