Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="John WR"] [quote user="Sam1"] Based on several reports critical of the company's food service practices, it appears that the activity is ripe for reform.[/quote] Would it be possible to share the sources of these reports with us, Sam?  The only reports I know of are Congressman Mica's.   I ride Northeast Regional trains.  Long ago Amtrak stopped operating the dining cars that the New Haven and Penn Central railroads operated.  And I avoid Amtrak's snack bars because I prefer the food available in the stations.   John [/quote] Numerous reports regarding Amtrak's food services practices have been issued by a variety of sources over the last ten years. I have read five or six of them. The two reports that I had in mind are the DOT Inspector General's Report CR-2005-068, July 25, 2005, and the Amtrak Inspector General's Report E-11-03, June 3, 2011. The DOT IG report dealt with the issue of sleepers and dinners on long distance trains. The Amtrak IG's report dealt with food service fraud. I have not read recently either report, and I am not quoting from them. We have beat them to death in our discussions. Food service on passengers trains, down through the years, has tended to be a loss leader. Ironically, if I remember correctly, one exception was the New Haven, which made money on its dinning cars longer than any other carrier while it was losing a ton of money on its passenger operations. Mica has a valid point.  If Amtrak were a profitable commercial operation, then running a loss leader would be acceptable.  But it is not profitable. It requires significant federal and state subsidies for its existence. Given its dependence on taxpayer subsidies, especially with respect to the long distance trains, I am hard pressed to understand why a train rider's eats should be subsidized. As I read what Mica supposedly said, his focus appears to be on so-called gourmet meals or Amtrak's contracts with gourmet chefs for food advice.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag