Dakguy201 To simplify the task of selling foods and beverages, many airlines have gone to a policy of accepting credit cards exclusively -- no cash sales. This simplifies the task of charging the customer as well as eliminating the security/accounting/currency conversion problems inherent in having a cash change fund. Wouldn't Amtrak be better off by adopting such a system?
To simplify the task of selling foods and beverages, many airlines have gone to a policy of accepting credit cards exclusively -- no cash sales. This simplifies the task of charging the customer as well as eliminating the security/accounting/currency conversion problems inherent in having a cash change fund.
Wouldn't Amtrak be better off by adopting such a system?
This was one of the IG's recommendations in its report on food and beverage sales fraud. Whether Amtrak moves forward with it is problematic. But hey! They got five years to get their act together so saith Boardman! So what's the rush?
I understand from a subsequent post that Amtrak will test a POS payment system across the system in 2014. We'll see.
They have promised to test a "cashless" system in 2014:
http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/196/210/Amtrak-Commits-End-Food-Beverage-Losses-ATK-13-115.pdf
ecoli Dakguy201 To simplify the task of selling foods and beverages, many airlines have gone to a policy of accepting credit cards exclusively -- no cash sales. This simplifies the task of charging the customer as well as eliminating the security/accounting/currency conversion problems inherent in having a cash change fund. Wouldn't Amtrak be better off by adopting such a system? They have promised to test a "cashless" system in 2014: http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/196/210/Amtrak-Commits-End-Food-Beverage-Losses-ATK-13-115.pdf
According to the announcement, Amtrak is using POS on Acela Express and some of the California trains. An interesting question, from my perspective, is why has it taken Amtrak so long to implement this proven payment technology?
It's quite possible that a fair number of Amtrak's passengers are not in the habit of putting everything on the plastic and prefer to pay cash. It may be viewed as an archaic and annoying habit but it's a good way of avoiding debt and outrageous interest rates.
Shortly after the Superliner II diners were delivered in the 1990's (note: about 20 years ago), table #9 was removed to make space for some kind of installation of a POS system. After table #9 was gone & replaced with cabinets, somebody decided the proposed POS system wouldn't work & the project was abandoned or put on hold. In the interim, we have found those cabinets very useful for storage, even though the shape and dimensions of the resulting storage space, and the cabinet doors, are a bit odd.
I'm sure an effective POS system would help, but would it be enough to offset the overhead costs I have described? Has any railroad ever really made a profit on dining car service? I've always understood it was traditionally considered an essential part of serving the needs of the customer and, as such, was not intended or expected to make a profit on its own. I'm sure we can find ways to save some money, but actually making a profit, or even covering all expenses through meal sales, may be "A Bridge Too Far".
Tom
Quoting ACY: "I'm kind of curious. If you and others didn't think we were responsible for taking on stock, stowing it away, and setting up our cars, who did you guys think did these things? I suspect you just never thought about it. That's not a real criticism; there are lots of things we all take for granted every day."
The same thought applies to the sleeping car attendants; some posters on another thread have thought that when a train reaches its terminal someone boards and gets the rooms ready for the next trip, not realizing that the attendant must have each room ready with the berths ready to be put into use. On my part, when getting off at a way station in the evening, I have invited the attendant to go ahead and change the linens and blankets so that this will not have to be done between my getting off and the next occupant's boarding.
As to a cashless system, it certainly would remove the possibility of theft--except for cash left as tips. When I order wine with my dinner, I add the tip for the meal to the credit card charge; I wonder how this will work out if no one may pay cash for a meal--will Amtrak add the amount of the charged tips to the paychecks? (Charging tips reduces, somewhat, the amount of cash I have to carry while traveling.)
I have yet to travel on Auto Train; since I live in Utah, I do not see myself driving east to ride it, though I would like to ride it. I could do what David P. Morgan did soon after the first Auto Train was inaugurated--he rented a car in Virginia, took it to Florida by train, and turned it in in Florida, to the amazement of the car rental agent at seeing so few miles on the odometer!
Johnny
Maybe those who do use credit or debit cards could purchase an Amtrak gift card for diner and lounge services. Passengers like me who entrain at un-manned stations could maybe get their card by mail or by prepaying the conductor could issue the card.
I kind of like the cruise ship (auto-train) concept where your meals are included in your ticket price. The buffet is fine for everyone on the boat and if you want more in a private sit down dining room you can pay extra. A compromise is menu prices like a Denny's, Shoney's, IHOP etc so those that eat in the diner contribute more than those who don't eat or only have a sandwich from the lounge. Maybe coach passengers would get meal coupons only if their trip is over 3-4 hours. Amtrak carried 33 million passengers so if we all paid $3 each the dining defecit would be paid. Obviously that means most coach passengers would use the diner so the diner would need a larger crew which will increase costs. But think a superliner diner was designed to serve 3-400 people at 5 settings and my traveling observation is most coach passengers are driven away by the current high prices.
It seems to me coach fares should be 1 or 2 cents per mile higher than a Greyhound Bus fare to justify that a train offers more leg room, meal and lounge service on the go and baggage service. That's just how it is. The bus serves as the most economical base choice by free enterprise which is fine. The trains cost more for less spartan service. Finally you say to Congress the passengers will pay for these amenities and not the taxpayers.
So the corridor rider is the one who probally is not getting a very good deal on this I say:
If you ride a 100 miles and pay a $2.00 service charge you do get more leg room than a bus and there is a cafe-lounge care available. If you ride 300 miles I might take the $6.00 surcharge and give you a $4.00 discount in the cafe and funnel the rest in the service pool. The cafe balance is no worst than it was and you get a burger, chips and coke for $7.00 instead of $11.00 (what I paid a year ago).
Dixie Flyer:
I can't address the dollar amounts you cite. Your guess is as good as mine.
You suggest 300-400 people in 5 seatings. Effectively, each Superliner diner has 64 usable seats. Sometimes we can get 100% use, but we often have parties of 3 with no single parties to match. Also, some passengers are large, and it's not reasonable to make somebody sit next to them. I'm not trying to be judgmental here. It's simply a fact. So we often have to live with a couple empty seats. That means a dinner seating of 60 people is reasonable, unless part of the car is being used for lounge service, in which case the capacity is less. Three hundred people can be crowded into one Superliner diner in 5 crowded seatings. Three hundred sixty can be handled in six crowded seatings. Four hundred would require a seventh seating. How long will each seating take? We have found that you have to allow 2 hours per seating on the Auto Train. Even then, a few people feel that we are rushing them. So we can theoretically get through the seven seatings in 14 hours, presuming the kitchen crew and the service crew don't take any breaks. Presumably, the seven dinner seatings would be scheduled 12 noon to 2 pm; 2 pm to 4 pm; 4pm to 6pm; 6pm to 8pm; 8 pm to 10 pm; 10 pm to 12 midnight; and 12 midnight to 2 am. Then when do we start breakfast and who has the energy to serve it? I doubt that the storage space would permit us to carry enough food to do this a second time, and I'm also sure the diner would run out of water long before the last seating was completed, especially if it is necessary to wash dishes, flatwear, and cooking utensils/pots/pans.
"So," as General Longstreet said of general Pickett's chances, "it is mathematical after all." (The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara, July 3, part 2).
The idea that you are allowing 2 hrs per meal seating sounds indefensible. It is a train, not the Ritz.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
OK Schlimm, how much time do you suggest?
ACY OK Schlimm, how much time do you suggest? Tom
I do not know, but pretty obviously that would be an unacceptably long wait for many patrons. I wonder if henry6 or Dave Klepper can recall how it was on trains like the
Broadway or 20th Century back in the 1950-60s? I remember eating in the dining car on the CZ and El Cap in the 1960's and I do not think it was "two hour seatings" then.
Tom: You say 2 hours per seating so patrons do not feel rushed. But if your capacity is 60 and you have 300 passengers, that is 5 seatings. So are you teliing me that dinner is served at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 pm starting times?
It's between 1 and 1.25 hours on the Rocky Mountaineer per seating. Why so fast? The servers are faster delivering the food to the table because they have an incentive to do so.
None of the passengers on the Rocky Mountaineer complained about being rushed that I observed.
My recent trip in September on the Capitol Limited it took an ungodly 2 hours and 20 min from sit down to finish the meal. Part of the problem is Amtrak charges for beverages and the pay the bill process easily eats up an extra 20 min per table with the Servers moving in slow motion. Regardless, I limited my trips to the Diner precisely because it took so long. I'd rather pay for my meal in the Cafe and get it faster and so I did. I had both adjoining Deluxe Bedrooms on the train for my party of three. On the trip to DC the Sleeping Car Attendant had troubles sliding the partition open he was so obeese. I assisted him. Still we all felt sorry for the amount of effort he put forwards we did not want to put him through that the next day and face his leaving the train on a stretcher. So even though Amtrak Reservations did a great job with the adjoining bedrooms in both directions we didn't slide the partition open again. BTW, the sleeping car attendant had to go get a crowbar to close the partition for the night which I thought was rather humorous. I think the lesson there is Amtrak shop forces have to fix those partitions so they slide easier in and out or Amtrak needs to quit selling it as a feature..
Anyways back to the crappy Dining Car Service. The other two in my party do not travel as much as I do and so arguably their standards and expectations are slightly lower in the area of service and food quality. However, they too complained about the highly screwed up Dining Car Operation and remarked it seemed like even though Amtrak employees had made the trip before that they appeared to be still learning on the job in the Dining Car. When we first entered the Dining Car for Diner we were scolded by the Servers for having the gaul to want to be served Dinner during their "break" time. My take from that is they did not hear the announcement by the onboard services chief for passengers to head to the Diner for the first seating. They never apologized for bitching at us. Instead the first 10-15 min of the meal we got attitude (very sad). Later they turned friendly and one of my later walks through the Dining Car they asked me why I was not eating there. I told them the truth which they didn't seem to want to hear.
I told my fellow passengers the reason for the rudeness. Part of their mistake was sitting down and trying to take initiative with the Amtrak ordering system (on which the server scolded them). I said on any government run service you have to wait for the instructions first any initiative taking is a punishable offense, especially in an Amtrak Diner. I learned that first in Army Basic Training and it seems Amtraks Opertaion and attitudes towards it's customers is similar.
Seriously, I hope they purchase an at table point of sale system like Chili's experimented with not too long ago. Let the passengers enter their order, have it go right to the Chef (if you can call him that) and pay their bill at the table without Amtrak personell intervention. It would speed things up (we can only hope) and probably result in less errors being made. They also need to cut employment in the Dining Car, they have too much staff as it is on the 50/50 cars on the Capital Limited (50% Diner and 50% Cafe). Most of the time the two extra people were just in the way.
blue streak 1TOM: Maybe if there is a large crowd for a seating at least 1/2 of the lounge car adjaecent to the kitchen side on single level trains could be used for seating. On superliner trains 1/2 the adjaecent lounge car could be used ? Maybe seat coach passengers in the lounge car ? Smell of food in lounge car might get some riders in other 1/2 of car to get a meal ?
Your expecting way too much of an Amtrak onboard service employee to make the decision to open both sides of the dining car to service the train faster. Instead they would rather keep just half open and let a portion of the train go hungry or redirect them to the Cafe Car. There was the demand for Dining Car service on the Capital but most of them went to the Cafe Car (including myself) for faster service. Even though I had sleeping car vouchers I would rather pay for faster service then sit around for an hour watching the Keystone Cops version of how to run a railroad dining car.
CMStPnP It's between 1 and 1.25 hours on the Rocky Mountaineer per seating. Why so fast? The servers are faster delivering the food to the table because they have an incentive to do so. None of the passengers on the Rocky Mountaineer complained about being rushed that I observed. My recent trip in September on the Capitol Limited it took an ungodly 2 hours and 20 min from sit down to finish the meal. Part of the problem is Amtrak charges for beverages and the pay the bill process easily eats up an extra 20 min per table with the Servers moving in slow motion. Regardless, I limited my trips to the Diner precisely because it took so long. I'd rather pay for my meal in the Cafe and get it faster and so I did. I had both adjoining Deluxe Bedrooms on the train for my party of three. On the trip to DC the Sleeping Car Attendant had troubles sliding the partition open he was so obeese. I assisted him. Still we all felt sorry for the amount of effort he put forwards we did not want to put him through that the next day and face his leaving the train on a stretcher. So even though Amtrak Reservations did a great job with the adjoining bedrooms in both directions we didn't slide the partition open again. BTW, the sleeping car attendant had to go get a crowbar to close the partition for the night which I thought was rather humorous. I think the lesson there is Amtrak shop forces have to fix those partitions so they slide easier in and out or Amtrak needs to quit selling it as a feature.. Anyways back to the crappy Dining Car Service. The other two in my party do not travel as much as I do and so arguably their standards and expectations are slightly lower in the area of service and food quality. However, they too complained about the highly screwed up Dining Car Operation and remarked it seemed like even though Amtrak employees had made the trip before that they appeared to be still learning on the job in the Dining Car. When we first entered the Dining Car for Diner we were scolded by the Servers for having the gaul to want to be served Dinner during their "break" time. My take from that is they did not hear the announcement by the onboard services chief for passengers to head to the Diner for the first seating. They never apologized for bitching at us. Instead the first 10-15 min of the meal we got attitude (very sad). Later they turned friendly and one of my later walks through the Dining Car they asked me why I was not eating there. I told them the truth which they didn't seem to want to hear. I told my fellow passengers the reason for the rudeness. Part of their mistake was sitting down and trying to take initiative with the Amtrak ordering system (on which the server scolded them). I said on any government run service you have to wait for the instructions first any initiative taking is a punishable offense, especially in an Amtrak Diner. I learned that first in Army Basic Training and it seems Amtraks Opertaion and attitudes towards it's customers is similar. Seriously, I hope they purchase an at table point of sale system like Chili's experimented with not too long ago. Let the passengers enter their order, have it go right to the Chef (if you can call him that) and pay their bill at the table without Amtrak personell intervention. It would speed things up (we can only hope) and probably result in less errors being made. They also need to cut employment in the Dining Car, they have too much staff as it is on the 50/50 cars on the Capital Limited (50% Diner and 50% Cafe). Most of the time the two extra people were just in the way.
No way to run a dining service. The problem is not government: DB Bord-restaurant cars serve pretty good food quickly. . The problem is an out-of-date system populated by untrained, incompetent staff. if Chili's et al can 'train" servers in one day to take orders, why can't Amtrak? It isn't rocket science. And the kitchen is basically a place where prepared food is cooked/heated/reheated in convection ovens, etc. These examples are exactly why the food service needs to be out-sourced to folks experienced in food service.
I believe one of the proposals to improve Food Service before the Amtrak board is to incent onboard Amtrak employees to sell the Dining Car Service. It will be interesting to see how that is implemented because in my experience that is one of the problems. The servers make no attempt to upsell or even sell what is on the menu, they just do not want to be bothered with the Dining Car clients and as a whole could care less about the success or failure of Amtrak itself.........it's sad..
I've seen a lot of posts on here speaking favorably of Amtrak Dining Car service. Yes you will look at it more favorably if you only ride a LD train maybe once every five years or less. I ride once maybe twice a year and I am pretty irritated at the lack of service and I don't care attitude I run into. I get better service and attitude when I fly first class (650,000 air miles on American and counting). No reason why Amtrak cannot approach those levels of service since American employees are unionized as well and their food prep area is a whole lot smaller on a plane encountering turbulence. Really not a Union vs Non-Union issue outside of the Commissaries, IMHO. Majority of Amtrak employees just do not care and are there only for the paycheck.
Now my opinion on Sleeping Car attendants is more positive, I have found poor attitudes in the Sleeping Car service area more an exception than the rule. Which offers a small glimmer of hope for Amtraks future. One complaint i have on the Sleeping Car attendants is they need to stop by and check on the passengers every so often instead of the "I am in this compartment, come and get me if you want me to do something" approach. Really? Why aren't you answering the porter call button when it is pushed?
So more training is needed in the Service area on Amtrak First Class I think.
One more comment on this topic. While it is true you can write Amtrak office of consumer affairs, Amtrak also has a LD Passenger Train advocate you can talk to via Email, I believe they have a group of them. These are Amtrak Passengers that ride LD trains 1-2 times a year or more that meet regularly with Senior Amtrak Management on issues raised. They also have passenger advocates for short distance trains.
In my view, using the passenger advocate method is a faster way to get items in front of Amtrak Senior management than is the Office of Consumer Affairs. Passenger Advocate's email is on the Amtrak website somewhere.
I guess these comments are mostly for CMStPnP and Schlimm ---
First, Schlimm, when you asked about how large numbers are served, I presume you meant on the Auto Train. As I've tried to explain, the Auto Train carries two diners for the coach section at the south end of the train. The extra seating is needed, but these meals can be prepared using one working kitchen. At the north end, the sleeping car section (serving 6 sleepers) is adjacent to the sleeper lounge. When passengers drop off their automobiles at the station, they choose when to eat: 1st, 2nd, or 3rd seating. Seating in the coach section is adequate to serve whatever number of passengers can fit in the coaches. Sometimes the count in the sleepers is over 180, which means seats in the adjacent lounge car will be needed. In those cases, one additional server is assigned. Blue Streak should like this, but sometimes it prompts complaints from people who either don't want to eat in the lounge "annex" or from people who are not eating dinner, but want access to the lounge seats. So, we can get everybody served in three seatings at 5:00, 7:00, and 9:00. Everybody eats at their scheduled time, so there is no reason anybody should think of having a "two hour wait".
If we begin seating in the Sleeper diner precisely at 5:00, we can get everybody seated by about 5:00 - 5:10 or 5:15. We have placed salads & bread on the tables in advance, so passengers can begin eating right away. Usually we can take all orders for drinks and entrees by about 5:20 - 5:25. If any passenger arrives late, this interrupts the work flow and slows things down. The first meals start to come up from the kitchen around 5:30 - 5:35, and we try to collect the empty salad bowls by then. All 60 meals are usually delivered by about 5:50. If the lounge car is needed for seating, there may be 80 or so meals to prepare, so it may take longer. As people finish their dinner, those dishes are cleared and desserts delivered. People begin to finish around 6:15. We try to start changing tablecloths and resetting the car by around 6:30. New salads from the kitchen are sent up and we get them on the tables around 6:40. Bread comes up around 6:55 and we put it on the tables just before the second dinner seating is announced. These various tasks are interrupted frequently by the need to put away clean dishes that come up from the dishwasher in the kitchen; clean up spills; refill salad dressing caddies; remove full trash bags; refill beverages; serve coffee/tea/decaf with dessert; respond to various requests from passengers; etc. etc. etc. It is rare that a server can begin a task and complete it without an interruption. The second and third seatings follow the same pattern. There is no designated meal time for the crew. We have our dinner whenever we have the chance. At my age, if I don't get to eat fairly early I usually have a piece of bread & maybe a dessert because I can't sleep well on a full stomach.
When I asked how much time we should take to seat seven dinner seatings in one Superliner diner, nobody volunteered a number. Let's say it can be done in 90 min. per seating, which is very doubtful. Then the 7 seatings could be scheduled for 1:30, 3:00, 4:30; 6:00, 7:30, 9:00, and 10:30, finishing at midnight. Still not practical.
Schlimm says 2 hours is "indefensible" because Amtrak is "not the Ritz". One of the reasons people take the train is that they don't want to be rushed. They also like the pleasant ambience. Maybe we're not the Ritz, but none of our passengers wants us to become an assembly line either, and that's the logical conclusion to what you're suggesting.
CMStPnP: Was there really an onboard services chief on your train? I'm surprised because in the year 2001 all chief positions were abolished nationwide except for those on A-T. There are a few "step-on/step-off" supervisors at various locations, but very rarely do they stay with the train for any significant distance/time.
Also, you say "Your (sic) expecting way too much of an Amtrak onboard service employee to make the decision to open both sides of the dining car to service the train faster. Instead they would rather....." Frankly, it doesn't matter what the o.b.s. staff would rather. Management makes that decision --- not o.b.s.
As for staffing on the Capitol Limited's diner, they used to have a staff of seven: Three in the kitchen and four upstairs. That has been reduced to two and three respectively.
And CMStPnP, it's possible that some o.b.s. employees are not so good as they could be, but your general, sweeping indictment of "untrained, incompetent staff" is just a plain, flat-out insult & doesn't deserve further comment. But I am glad to see that you've finally realized we use convection ovens.
Refer to General Longstreet's comment. It's still mathematical after all.
CMStPnP:
I have no objection to your last two postings. There are probably bad apples out there and I won't defend them. When I worked the sleepers, I found that a lot of passengers didn't want to be bothered by frequent fawning over them.. My approach was to be sure they knew where the Attendant Call button was located, and to be visible and as available as possible.
ACY CMStPnP: I have no objection to your last two postings. There are probably bad apples out there and I won't defend them. When I worked the sleepers, I found that a lot of passengers didn't want to be bothered by frequent fawning over them.. My approach was to be sure they knew where the Attendant Call button was located, and to be visible and as available as possible. Tom
Well first if it wasn't an onboard services chief it was some obese lady that was wondering the train with a radio set that was not the Conductor, so whatever her title was, she announced when Dinner was in the Diner.......she was not part of the Dining Car Staff. She also stopped to answer our porter call even though our Sleeping Car attendant was nowhere to be found......so she had something to do with overall train operation.
As for the Dining Car. We'll have to agree to disagree. I really think your misreading Amtrak Passengers if you think they want to remain prisoners of the Dining Car for 2+ hours It's not true on the Rocky Mountaineer and they pay a lot more for that service than Amtrak. I would venture to guess it is not true on the Alaska Railroad either. I agree with schlimm, if you used all the seats in the Dining Car and turned it better...........Dining Car loss would be a lot less than it is now. Same with upselling menu items. Of course the Amtrak menu needs to be revamped as well to have more upscale menu offerings including better entrees and wine offerings. Most mid level to fine restaurants do have a polite way of encouraging non-spending clients to move on so that they can turn the table. I don't think there is anything wrong with that approach and when it is done right it does not impact repeat business.
ACY,
I have enjoyed your contributions to the forums. Your views are expressed very well. Your command of the written word is excellent.
Yep, we'll have to agree to disagree. We have NEVER kept "passengers prisoner of the Dining Car for 2+ hours." It's the crew that's kept captive. ("That's a joke, Son" ---Foghorn Leghorn)
And Sam1, thanx for your comments.
I guess it is not surprising what a active topic this as been. I think it shows we as a group care and want things continue to improve.
On the California Z to Denver there was 2 attendants and the head attendant upstairs and whatever below preparing the food. They servied one half the diner at 5:30, the other at 6PM and rotated back and forth. So they tooks and hour to get you in and out and gear up for the next group.
I guess I am form the group that eats in 10=20 minutes and home and considers 40minutes a long time. When you have had little kids an hour would see llike an eternity.
Lot of interesting comments.
Dixie FlyerI guess it is not surprising what a active topic this as been. I think it shows we as a group care and want things continue to improve.
+1
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
So there seems to be a range of seating durations in practice, from 1-2 hours. If the train needs to serve 300 patrons in a 60 seat dining car, there are 5 seatings needed.
At the risk of sounding like the AT&T guy on TV, "which is better? Eating dinner for a leisurely 2 hours, either being seated at 2:00pm or waiting to be seated to as late as 10 pm; OR spending 45 minutes eating and being seated sometime between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm?"
All:
This is getting awfully tedious, so I think I'll limit my future participation in this particular discussion. I'm not necessarily going to drop out of it, but I feel like I'm repeatedly clarifying issues that I'd previously clarified. Frankly, it's getting on my nerves. I work with this stuff every day, and I'd rather keep it out of my hobby.
Schlimm, it's still math. Start your first seating at 5:00. Schedule the other four seatings at 45 minute intervals. Theoretically, the last seating begins at 8:00. This presumes a Superliner diner with 60 people in each seating. If there is any real cooking done, or any real service given, or any attention given to F.D.A. regulations, or any attention given to passengers with special dietary needs, or any spills to clean up, then it will likely take longer. When a passenger orders, there is no time to wait for him to hesitate before choosing whether to have the beef or the chicken. You have also neglected to allow for cleanup time between seatings. You say the passenger is "spending 45 minutes eating". He's not going to spend 45 minutes eating if these other things have to be done. And I seriously doubt you can do it anyway, if only because the diner has a good chance of running out of water before you're done. And no state health department will allow a restaurant to operate if it has no water. The F.D.A. most certainly won't. I'm curious to know how many people you think would be required to run this mythical diner (to where? Oz?).
Operations on other trains, including non-daily excursion trains and operations in other countries, have been cited to refute what I say. Apples & oranges. The operations on my own train (yes, we A-T people feel very possessive & proud of it) are not necessarily applicable to other situations, and I've said that more than once, I think.
Most responders have been reasonably courteous, and I've tried to be courteous and respectful even when I've disagreed with someone. However, I never got into this thing with the intention of being insulted, and a few people have crossed that line. When someone says something like "All Amtrak employees...." or "Most onboard service personnel......", they are talking about me, and I resent some of those grossly overgeneralized comments. Examples?
Nov 3, 9:14 am Sleeper attendant characterized "he was so obese (sic)........" A gratuitous insult, and it had nothing to do with food service,
Nov. 3, 9:14 am "The chef (if you can call him that)"
Nov. 3, 9:37 am "untrained, incompetent staff"
Nov. 3, 11:39 am "Majority of Amtrak employees just do not care and are there only for the paycheck." I might ask why you go to work, and if you do it for free.
Nov. 3, 12:35 pm Unidentified supervisor was "some obese lady." Call her a supervisor, or even a chief if you want to, but calling her obese is gratuitous and insulting and clearly a device to cast her in an unfavorable light. Her physical characteristics are irrelevant to the issues we've been discussing. If I spoke that way of a passenger, I'd be lucky to avoid firing, and I know a situation where someone was actually fired for precisely that infraction. I guess you, as a passenger, think you can get away with it. Maybe you can as a passenger on the train, but not here. But least you spelled it right this time.
I'm tired & have things to do. Besides, I have to go to work tomorrow. I won't be going in order to loaf.
Oops! To clarify, the first spelling of "obese" was "obeese". I made the mistake of spelling it correctly with my "sic" note.
Tom/ACY,
I have really appreciated your comments and explanations. Please stick with us, despite some folks poor comments. I don't post often, but I wanted to thank you for your time. As a NC Train Host on the Carolinian, I see and work with a lot of crews and other then one or two folks, they are all hard working and care about the passengers comfort and safety.
Thanks, matthewsaggie. wave if you see us going by.
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