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<p>[quote user="dakotafred"]</p> <p>[quote user="Sam1"]</p> <p> </p> <p>Southwest figured it out. Most people don't want an airplane meal; they want low fares and frequent service. Peanuts will do just fine.</p> <div style="clear:both;"><br />[/quote]</div> <div style="clear:both;"> </div> <div style="clear:both;">Totally different. On a flight of 1-2 hours, why even bother with the token peanuts? When airlines were serving "meals," those were criticized as Amtrak's are. On a train trip of more than a few hours, you obviously have to have the food option. (Unless you like Greyhound-style meal stops.) [/quote]</div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;">If Amtrak were operated as a business, which was the original idea, it would concentrate its efforts on relatively short, high density corridors, where only limited food service would be required. Most passengers would be on the train for less than two or three hours, as is the case in the viable short corridors, e.g. NEC, California, Illinois, etc., and would need little in the way of food service.  Works for Megabus!  </div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;">As the IG and others have noted, the big money loser for Amtrak's food and beverage service is embedded in the long distance trains. The solution is to get rid of the long distance trains.</div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;">Greyhound makes money.  It covers its costs and returns a modest profit to its owners.  Why should passenger rail be excluded from the market forces that have governed every other mode of transport in the United States?  Airlines, bus companies, trucking firms, barge lines, etc. have been allowed to go out of business if they could not hack it.</div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;">People in Maine need heat in the winter to stay warm.  In fact, they need it to stay alive. People in Texas need energy to stay cool and prevent heat prostration in the summer.  The users in Maine are expected to pay for the fuel oil and gas that they use to heat their homes.  People in my part of the country are expected to pay for the electric energy they need to manage the heat. Low income people get some help from the government. But most people are expected to pay for what they use.  And they do!</div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;">What is it about passenger trains that demands a heavy subsidy for food service, much of which is consumed on the long distance trains by affluent seniors?  On my trips on the Texas Eagle, more than 75 per cent of the people eating in the dinning car are from the sleepers.  They are captives of the dinning car; the cost of their meals, which is not apparent, is baked into the cost of their accommodations.</div>
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