WASHINGTON — Amtrak is adding a hot-meal choice to lunch and dinner food service for sleeping-car passengers on the Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited. Beginning this week, slow-braised beef short rib in a red wine and beer sauce will be ad...
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/07/13-amtrak-adds-hot-meal-option-on-lake-shore-capitol
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
Whoopee.
This makes the savaging of the LD train experience all right then, doesn't it?
Brian Schmidt WASHINGTON — Amtrak is adding a hot-meal choice to lunch and dinner food service for sleeping-car passengers on the Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited. Beginning this week, slow-braised beef short rib in a red wine and beer sauce will be ad... http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/07/13-amtrak-adds-hot-meal-option-on-lake-shore-capitol
So, does this mean that the dining car has an attendant to heat the hot meal choice?
Sleeping car passengers can eat in their room or in the dining car. Can coach passengers grab something to eat in the lounge car and take it to the dining car?
It is hard to believe that a real business would discontinue full meal service in a dining car but still drag it from end point to end point. A well-managed business would have ditched the dining cars and made provisions for the first-class passengers to eat in their rooms or the lounge car. After all, nothing promotes democracy like have the upper crust mix it up with the middle and lower crust.
Rio Grande Valley, CFI,CFII
PJS1It is hard to believe that a real business would discontinue full meal service in a dining car but still drag it from end point to end point. A well-managed business would have ditched the dining cars and made provisions for the first-class passengers to eat in their rooms or the lounge car. After all, nothing promotes democracy like have the upper crust mix it up with the middle and lower crust.
My guess is they don't know what to do with the Dining cars now and are afraid if they idle them. Congress will jump on them. However now that they are not used they basically duplicate the lower level of the lounge car. If they want a first class lounge, then gut a few dining cars and make one. However, once they cross that threshold there is no turning back from the box meal decision.
So it is all a matter of staying safe with the experiment and keeping it reversible. What you would expect from a government funded operation.
Also think of the wasted space on all those coach - baggage cars that are probably running around the country half empty all these years.
CMStPnP PJS1 It is hard to believe that a real business would discontinue full meal service in a dining car but still drag it from end point to end point. A well-managed business would have ditched the dining cars and made provisions for the first-class passengers to eat in their rooms or the lounge car. After all, nothing promotes democracy like have the upper crust mix it up with the middle and lower crust. My guess is they don't know what to do with the Dining cars now and are afraid if they idle them. Congress will jump on them. However now that they are not used they basically duplicate the lower level of the lounge car. If they want a first class lounge, then gut a few dining cars and make one. However, once they cross that threshold there is no turning back from the box meal decision. So it is all a matter of staying safe with the experiment and keeping it reversible. What you would expect from a government funded operation. Also think of the wasted space on all those coach - baggage cars that are probably running around the country half empty all these years.
Good perspective!
These two trains are single level, and did they not simply drop the lounge car, using the diner as both food service and storage and lounge?
What options are avaiable for a long-distance coach passenger who would want at least one decent meal on his or her trip?
Anyway, one hot meal is an improvement, even if I cannot use it as a vegetarian. Kosher and special diet meals are available, and I presume that now any of these can be hot.
A few thoughts:
If, as the conpiracy theorists have it, degrading food service is part of a plan to destroy the LD trains, why would Amtrak add a hot meal?
Doesn't removing the dining car staff from the train free up space in the sleepers for revenue passengers? Wouldn't this improve the ability of Amtrak to keep LD trains running?
Amtrak is tasked with not losing money on food service. Continuing to run diners as lounges probably helps as the cost of the equipment comes off the "food service" books, I would imagine. A bookeeping game, for sure, but one that does not fit the "destory the LD train" narrative.
So far, these are rather short term, easy things to do. Hopefully, Amtrak is working on longer term, harder to do things to make their LD trains more releveant to the travelling public.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
CMStPnPAlso think of the wasted space on all those coach - baggage cars that are probably running around the country half empty all these years.
You should see how much space is actually used in those new Viewliner baggage cars. They are 90% empty. The order should have been for combines and coaches....
oltmannd Hopefully, Amtrak is working on longer term, harder to do things to make their LD trains more releveant to the travelling public.
I am with you!
One area that could be a winner would be better passenger train service between DFW and San Antonio, which has become one of the most congested corridors in the U.S.
Do you think anyone from Amtrak's management team reads Trains or pays attention to the comments on its blogs and forums?
oltmannd CMStPnP Also think of the wasted space on all those coach - baggage cars that are probably running around the country half empty all these years. You should see how much space is actually used in those new Viewliner baggage cars. They are 90% empty. The order should have been for combines and coaches....
CMStPnP Also think of the wasted space on all those coach - baggage cars that are probably running around the country half empty all these years.
Too much of the Viewliner order consisted of non-revenue cars (baggage and dining cars). Very poor planning.
oltmanndYou should see how much space is actually used in those new Viewliner baggage cars. They are 90% empty. The order should have been for combines and coaches....
A combine would have been better, or combo / crew car. However, if a Combine works then why can't they get the Coach Baggage cars to work (someone said there was not enough space on those). I guess I am not understanding all the issues with what is needed square footage wise.
The only combines on currently on Amtrak's roster are Superliners, which precludes their use on most eastern routes. Also, a Viewliner combine, either coach-baggage or coach-dorm, could not be used on Superliner-equipped trains. New baggage cars were needed everywhere on the system so a combine is not practical.
oltmannd You should see how much space is actually used in those new Viewliner baggage cars. They are 90% empty. The order should have been for combines and coaches....
I have looked inside the Texas Eagle's baggage car at Fort Worth on two or three occasions over the last year. It was nearly empty.
The Austin station agent, who I have gotten to know, told me that the coach baggage car on the Texas Eagle would on occasion have more checked baggage than it could easily accommodate, but he said it was rare. Most of the time it was adequate.
The advantage of the coach baggage car is that it can be loaded or unloaded from the station platform without any special apparatus. But the new baggage cars require a high-level cart - platform - to load or unload the baggage, or the attendant has to lift the bags up to the floor of the baggage car or lower them to the ground. Makes me wonder if Amtrak's management thought through the processes.
CSSHEGEWISCHAlso, a Viewliner combine, either coach-baggage or coach-dorm, could not be used on Superliner-equipped trains.
What happened to the Superliner Transition cars?
PJS1One area that could be a winner would be better passenger train service between DFW and San Antonio, which has become one of the most congested corridors in the U.S. Do you think anyone from Amtrak's management team reads Trains or pays attention to the comments on its blogs and forums?
There was a news item in Spring of 2017 that the San Antonio major contacted Amtrak and funded a $100,000 study for Amtrak to run a train from Austin to San Antonio. Funding came from San Antonio city budget to find out what the costs would be in light of UP RR backing out of the former plan.
Mexican government was in on the discussion as they wanted an Austin to Laredo connection as they were interested in Laredo to Monterrey, MX HSR (I think that is a Mexican Pie in the Sky). Anyways I cannot find the results of the study on the Internet.
CMStPnP CSSHEGEWISCH Also, a Viewliner combine, either coach-baggage or coach-dorm, could not be used on Superliner-equipped trains. What happened to the Superliner Transition cars?
CSSHEGEWISCH Also, a Viewliner combine, either coach-baggage or coach-dorm, could not be used on Superliner-equipped trains.
Johnny
PJS1Do you think anyone from Amtrak's management team reads Trains or pays attention to the comments on its blogs and forums?
I sure hope not, judging by the mob here waiting with baited breath and cudgels to kill Amtrak long distance trains & dining cars. And these are supposed "rail fans"!
NKP guyI sure hope not, judging by the mob here waiting with baited breath and cudgels to kill Amtrak long distance trains & dining cars. And these are supposed "rail fans"!
Woo-Hoo!! I think everyone wants to see Amtrak succeed. As for myself, I have a really low tolerence for stupidity and waste which Amtrak seems to thrive on in various areas. I'd rather fund the areas of Amtrak that have hope and not fund those areas that have zero chance of ever succeeding.
Case in Point: Sunset Limited AND what amounts to two Chicago to LA trains daily.........one that takes the long way there and one that goes directly there. Would rather prserve the Southwest Limited but faced with a choice one of them definitely has to go.
Same issue with Cardinal / Capitol Limited. Capitol Limited is the faster and more convienient schedule keep it and get ride of the Cardinal.
CMStPnPSame issue with Cardinal / Capitol Limited. Capitol Limited is the faster and more convienient schedule keep it and get ride of the Cardinal.
The Cardinal and Capitol Limited are serving two entirely different transportation markets between their common end points. Just because trains service common end points doesn mean they have the same reasons to exist.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
CMStPnP NKP guy I sure hope not, judging by the mob here waiting with baited breath and cudgels to kill Amtrak long distance trains & dining cars. And these are supposed "rail fans"! Woo-Hoo!! I think everyone wants to see Amtrak succeed. As for myself, I have a really low tolerence for stupidity and waste which Amtrak seems to thrive on in various areas. I'd rather fund the areas of Amtrak that have hope and not fund those areas that have zero chance of ever succeeding. Case in Point: Sunset Limited AND what amounts to two Chicago to LA trains daily.........one that takes the long way there and one that goes directly there. Would rather prserve the Southwest Limited but faced with a choice one of them definitely has to go. Same issue with Cardinal / Capitol Limited. Capitol Limited is the faster and more convienient schedule keep it and get ride of the Cardinal.
NKP guy I sure hope not, judging by the mob here waiting with baited breath and cudgels to kill Amtrak long distance trains & dining cars. And these are supposed "rail fans"!
Very true. I think the criterion should be serving people with basic transportation, which does not mean slow, unreliable service only three days a week that few ride. The two trains listed have the smallest numbers of passengers riding on LD trains for 2017: Cardinal 112,000; the Sunset only 99,000.
The previous two postings would make sense if the majority of customers of all these trains were between end points. They are not. They are mostly between intrmediate points and end points plus betwen intermediate points. And much of this travel is simply not served by any other public transportation.
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