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I Want a Passenger Train Because.....

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  • From: Atlanta
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Posted by oltmannd on Friday, August 13, 2010 6:47 AM
TomDiehl

oltmannd
Deggesty

CSSHEGEWISCH

Historically, full service dining cars lost money even in the pre-streamliner era.  However, most roads viewed them as a necessary amenity and ate the losses.

I never saw a statement otherwise. It is interesting that, in most cases, when all but perhaps one sleeper were dropped from a train, the diner would be dropped also, and arrangements made for advance orders to be taken for meals to bought at certain stations. The Southern, in particular, did this.
And Amtrak doesn't do this why??

Well, on the freight railroads, Amtrak's ability to stay on schedule is spotty at best. Coordinating this type service with scheduled meal times would be a "challenge."

. That makeIt's rare that trains are more than an hour or so late. Preorder at the trip start and then fine-tune the delivery based on updated ETA. Amtrak - Wilmington knows where all their trains are all the time via GPS and satellite communications plus signal OS data direct from frt roads. Or, you could use the train radio and/or the local frt RR dispatching office to get a good ETA and Just might take some innovation and internal communication on Amtrak's part.

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

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