With respect to Fred Frailey's thoughts on a no-diner SILVER STAR (which I firmly believe/hope were somewhat tongue in cheek) there is more to this than just food. If Amtrak can get away with a snack-only 31 hour long-haul train why bother with new diners? And if there is no need for diners why bother with added sleepers either? Those annoying First Class riders will just want services!
I deeply hope I'm wrong about the VIEWLINER II car order, but something is certainly amiss there and it's not just the builder's (CAF) fault. Quoted from the Trains Magazine site: The problem with the SILVER STAR food "experiment" is the cafe-lounge menu being offered, which contains only sandwiches and snacks for both lunch and dinner and at breakfast only the "AmMcMuffin" and packaged sweet rolls/donuts. No plated meals, no quality salads, nothing fresh--and this on a potentially 31 hour run.No "experiment" needs be completed to determine that sleeping car riders at least won't like this! They may intially think, "Great deal--lower room charges", but the bloom will fade fast from the rose when they go into an Amfleet II Cafe-lounge with most tables occupied by computer users and/or drinkers--served by only one attendant and discover the menu offers nothing even remotely good for a New York-Miami trip encompassing two lunches, a breakfast and a dinner.If this was meant as a fair "test", a menu and service model similar to the diner-light service on the CARDINAL would have been offered. There at least passengers can get a ecent plated meal based on the ACELA "Fist Class" model. As it stands this travesty on the SILVER STAR should ultimately devastate sleeper business on 91&92, and Amtrak has to know this going in!Are we doomed to replay the 1960s? This recalls the SP "economy" moves in the late 1960s, when the SUNSET LIMITED lost both diner and lounge car service from New Orleans to El Paso in favor of only the vending machine only "Automat" car. Shock, the sleepers also ended up gone.The SP then tried to pull the emasculated SUNSET off. The irony was that this ultimate SP outrage backfired. The ICC ultimately not only turned down the SP train-off request, but ordered a diner-lounge car and sleepers back on the train (and on all other long-distance services over 12 hours nationwide), resulting in the railroad outcry that helped to start the move to establish Amtrak (also very much supported/enhanced by the more understandable carrier outrage/desperation over the impact of lost mail/express revenue on passenger service with the 1967-68 switch to all air/truck mail service).It was good to hear from the just-completed April NARP meeting in Washington that Amtrak's Joe McHugh still claims Amtrak will proceed to take delivery of the VIEWLINER II sleepers and diners, because I am beginning to wonder about this. When will Amtrak announce a new/clear delivery date for the VIEWLINER II cars actually intended to carry and serve people, as opposed to baggatge? The fact that months after their delivery by CAF to Amtrak the two prototype diner/sleeper cars remain stored, and that two years after the scheduled delivery date for the full order we still have no idea when the remaining 24 diners, 24 sleepers, and the 15 crew-dorm baggage cars might be delivered, raises very real questions about whether Amtrak still has the intention to complete this order.Gossip blames "supply-line" problems at the builder, CAF, for the long-delays, yet the prototypes were delivered, so what really is CAF's responsibility?If the "no diner" SILVER STAR "works" why would Amtrak need a new fleet of dining cars? After all it can then say "didn't 91 & 92 prove a cafe-lounge/snack service was enough". And if the revised SILVER STAR's sleeper revenue collapses, but coach revenue on the train holds up--why bother to take delivery of new sleepers either?Amtrak has been remarkably silent about the status of the VIEWLINER II order and at best amazingly passive in view of it's late completion--unless of course the Boardman Amtrak is quite satisfied with the process. At best Amtrak has so far avoided paying for cars it may no longer want. At worst this could be a slow-walk intended to justify a car-order cancellation, blaming the builder and "changed circumstances". I hope not and will be thrilled if these turn out to be completely unfounded fears, but something clearly is wrong in this car-procurement process.Boardman promised Congressman Mica no food-service losses in five years (from a year past). This is almost certainly impossible if Amtrak provides any sort of decent food-service and the fact that Amtrak did not have the courage to make this point is deeply disturbing. We know from history what happens when service is dramatically downgraded on long-distance trains (1960s--SP. Frisco, Southern, Rock Island, Katy, etc). Patronage collapses and then the carrier "reluctantly" seeks a train-off. Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it!Do we as Amtrak riders really believe a national network could survive with only microwaved sandwiches as lunch and dinner and muffin sandwiches lor sweet rolls as breakfast on trains like the SILVER STAR or even more importantly on the CZ or the EMPIRE BUILDER? The inevitable outcome of such a process is the loss of the true national network and a series of disconnected corridors subject to state support only. No Amtrak without a true national network could ever win a vote in Congress.So there is more to worry about in the SILVER STAR case than just what food to carry aboard to avoid the cafe-lounge menu. This "experiment" had better fail, because if Amtrak thinks it was a success the survival of train travel nationally is in profound jeapardy. On any run with an overnight schedule decent food service is an essential.
Carl Fowler
Carl, you are right on. Sure thier are many ways for a creative passenger to bring or make a meal on board, but if I have to resort to brown bagging it on any long distance train, then I am out.
I have no issue paying a higher fare for a good meal. From almost the beginning of long distances trains railroads prided them self's and built a tradition of good food and good service. Most first class passenger's have no trouble paying for it or even a bit more for the service. For those who can't or won't the lounge car is available. Hey these are my feelings and perceptions of what is of value for me.
Those in power decree the success or failure of experiments, no matter what reality may indicate.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
RailvtSo there is more to worry about in the SILVER STAR case than just what food to carry aboard to avoid the cafe-lounge menu. This "experiment" had better fail, because if Amtrak thinks it was a success the survival of train travel nationally is in profound jeapardy. On any run with an overnight schedule decent food service is an essential.
Nicely thought out post, Carl!
It's becoming more and more obvious that Amtrak is both unwilling and unable to provide of any real innovation in food service. Being unable to "unseat" a dining car attendant on the CZ who's "on a sit down strike" is another example.
The only real hope is to get Amtrak out of the LD dining cars completely. Get folks who make money selling food to folks in there. Let them figure it out. I'd bet they could. Could they do any worse?
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
May be Amtrak is going the wrong direction on sleeping cars and first class service. Perhaps Amtrak should follow the lead of via, providing a premium price service in its park cars on the Canadian. Price aboved regular sleepers but with the bell and whistle to attract the cliental willing to pay the extra fare.
Pullman is already doing it to a certain extent on the Chicago to new Orleans run. ( yes I know this is not a daily service)
Perhaps at high seasonal demand times, such as November to April on one of the silver trains, or may to October on the empire builder.
Gutting first class service will reduce expenses for Amtrak but in the end it will reduce ridership and total revenues.
First class on the Acela trains is well worth the added expense and contributes to the bottom line as well.
ROBERT WILLISON May be Amtrak is going the wrong direction on sleeping cars and first class service. Perhaps Amtrak should follow the lead of via, providing a premium price service in its park cars on the Canadian. Price aboved regular sleepers but with the bell and whistle to attract the cliental willing to pay the extra fare. Pullman is already doing it to a certain extent on the Chicago to new Orleans run. ( yes I know this is not a daily service) Perhaps at high seasonal demand times, such as November to April on one of the silver trains, or may to October on the empire builder. Gutting first class service will reduce expenses for Amtrak but in the end it will reduce ridership and total revenues. First class on the Acela trains is well worth the added expense and contributes to the bottom line as well.
Seasonal service is very hard on the cost side since equipment utilization is so low.
Amtrak has trouble maintaining the status quo. You really want Fred Frailey's "sit down strike" diner attendant as a part of "premium" service?
Nope just want premium service, aka Acela first class or the new via service on the Canadian. It can be daily or tri weekly. I am sure their is a demand for it on the east coast.
BaltACD Those in power decree the success or failure of experiments, no matter what reality may indicate.
A fact also true of government funded studies.
ROBERT WILLISON Nope just want premium service, aka Acela first class or the new via service on the Canadian. It can be daily or tri weekly. I am sure their is a demand for it on the east coast.
Amtrak is incapable and oblivious to "Premium" on LD routes. Best to push them to find outside service providers for this...
Be careful of what you ask for! You may not like it when you get it.
Simply not the case. Look at Amtrak's parlor car operations on the coast star light and their Acela first class operation .
Amtrak has no problem Running six to seven sleepers on its auto train and two to three sleepers on its silver silvers
Amtrak suffers from many typical managers in corporate America. Those kinds think the best way to improve revenues is to cut service rather build it thru offering additional services
airlines don't have any issues filling their first class sections. thier is already a built in market for sleeper service in the northeast to Florida market and plenty of pesky first class passengers looking for perks.
oltmanndIt's becoming more and more obvious that Amtrak is both unwilling and unable to provide of any real innovation in food service. Being unable to "unseat" a dining car attendant on the CZ who's "on a sit down strike" is another example. The only real hope is to get Amtrak out of the LD dining cars completely.
I may seem naive for not having seen this before -- but isn't this one way Amtrak can get rid of the whole mess ... the inefficient commissary, the wasted food, the surly attendants with seniority, and all that ... and then be able to put a different form (would it have been a 'paradigm' in the '80s?) of full dining-car service back with more of a clean slate when "outcry" demands a return to it?
That would be the time for the outsourcing, too, although I tremble to think of the equivalent of Harvey Girls in a Tilted Kilt kind of world...
Wizlish I tremble to think of the equivalent of Harvey Girls in a Tilted Kilt kind of world...
Some may tremble...
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
Note I carefully didn't say 'tremble with what' ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlwnbcxBuzI
(Possibly NSFW)
Outsourcing may not be a bad idea for us who delight in the diner. Amtrak would not be accused of subsidising food for the rich.
Amtrak may have to choose between pleasing Congress and pleasing its customers. The right choice is the latter ... and if Congress has the guts to pull the Amtrak plug, which it hasn't had in 44 years, so be it. I love Amtrak ... but we have suffered more grievous losses.
Outsourcing of food service may be restricted by labor contracts.
I have also gotten the impression from my reading that food service on a train was never a moneymaker in its own right, even in the pre-Amtrak era. Dining car prices were also relatively high, which also kept a lot of coach passengers out of the diner.
It is correct that railroad food service has never been financially profitable but it does lure passengers. Old magazine ads showcase dining cars serving gourmet meals; the availability and quality of on-board dining was and still is a great public relations tool (of course no AMTRAK meal can compare to dining on the 20th Century Limited!).
AMTRAK has suspended diners on the Silver Star as a money-saving 'experiment', ie: will passengers book sleeper at a lower rate if meals are not included? Of course the proper way of conducting such an experiment would have been to offer sleeper accommodations at two levels: with meals or without. Removing the full-service diner and forcing all passengers to use the fast-food-like cafe/lounge is frankly asinine.
AMTRAK is a bureacracy and they are approaching cost-saving in typical bean-counter fashion: two fully booked sleeping cars with meals included is not as cost-effective as four fully-booked coaches paying per meal in the cafe/lounge. Of course that's how AMTRAK pencil-pushers see it; they do not consider that once aboard at least half those coach passengers actually pay out-of-pocket for a good sit-down meal in the diner rather than a microwaved snack in the fast-food atmosphere of the cafe/lounge.
When we visit family in North Carolina we ride the Silver Star from Newark to Hamlet and return. Between these cities is not overnight in either direction so we book coach but at eleven hours it is still a long ride. We look forward to lunch and dinner in the diner on the way down and breakfast and lunch on return. It breaks up the trip and no matter the meal I have no complaint of the service nor food itself ... it is good. My family of four have always agreed the highlight of our Silver Star travel is the dining car.
I recently sent AMTRAK an e-mail questioning this experiment and their flawed logic. Worse, my family may have to this year consider a different way of getting to our destination (long ago I swore-off that horrible I-95 drive and all the accompanying meal/bathroom/stretch stops). Without a full-service dining car AMTRAK is turning the Silver Star into nothing more than a terrestrial airplane flight. It is extremely sad to see cost accountants removing the last remains of civilized rail travel.
I think the larger issue is this. Amtrak LD services (the operating expenses) are subsidized by taxpayer. That is just fine, for many reasons. But providing a subsidized dining car experience for sleeper passengers and those in coach who choose to seems excessive. Amtrak's mission is to provide transportation, not subsidized "civilized rail travel" whatever that is.
Travel by rail is travel in civilized comfort--especially when it is compared with travel by air.
I have not eaten a hamburger in a Superliner lounge in some time, but the buns of two I had last month when traveling in business class were tough; microwaving them does not help them--the buns served with the hamburgers in diners are not tough. I do not think much of what is available for breakfast in any lounge car. Despite the lack of variety served in diners from North to South and from East to West, I enjoy eating in the diners.
Johnny
The only way to test the concept would be to offer unlimited seats on both the Meteor and Star. That way what train service chosen could be compared. Offering identical bucket types for same day would also need to be offered with identical price changes. Of course the passengers getting on and off between Selma - Savannah & Lakeland - Tampa would not be counted.
Unfortunately Amtrak now does not have the equipment to add all the coachs, diners, and sleepers needed to run such a test now. As the test is set up now certain parameters cannot be measured.
blue streak 1 The only way to test the concept would be to offer unlimited seats on both the Meteor and Star. That way what train service chosen could be compared. Offering identical bucket types for same day would also need to be offered with identical price changes. Of course the passengers getting on and off between Selma - Savannah & Lakeland - Tampa would not be counted. Unfortunately Amtrak now does not have the equipment to add all the coachs, diners, and sleepers needed to run such a test now. As the test is set up now certain parameters cannot be measured.
You could set up the experiment using the classic 'alternate forms' methodology. In this case run the differing food services on alternate days of the trains with the cost for dining car service deducted from sleepers on the cafe-lounge days.
Having reread the 2015 House THUD bill (that failed to even get a floor vote) and now the 2016 THUD bill (going to markup tomorrow), I believe that the House committee has decided that the traditional Amtrak transfer of revenue from first class to food service is not acceptable. There was more of a reference to this in the 2015 bill but the charts presented do not count as revenue the transfer of funds from 1st class (Acela or Sleeper) fares to food service.
Now does this say no dinner? Of course not, but some of this seems to be related to the above non-sensical distinction. I still cannot see any actual labor savings due to the agreements for the relatively short time period of the test. As National Corridors pointed out there are other cafe cars available with more advanced food preparation areas that could backfill the standard cafes, so it is not a equipment issue either.
2015 THUD Quote:
"Food, beverage and first class services.
We need a new look at the F&B costs and revenues.
There is something not right about the F&B losses. We know that Amtrak has creative accounting but ----
The May performance report lists for the current FY.
F&B revenue $110M, Expenses 208M, Loss 98M
Passengers Total 20M, LD 2M, sleeper 433K
Realize that there does not seem to be a cost allocation for operating the dinner. Does the costs include the $4.00+ per mile cost for regular cars ? ( if that figure is reliable )
Arbritary figures but -- If a separate ticket surcharge listed as F&B was instituted of say $5.00 / 100 miles for sleeper passengers and $1.00 / 200 miles on all other passengers you would immediately have a F&B surplus. That way proper food and service personel would be a + revenue source attracting more dining passengers. Too simple probably.? POLS probably would not like a simple solution. Suspect that this is how airlines and cruise ships allocate costs for their bean counters.
An excellent first hand report from Bob Stewart, NARP's President, appears at http://www.narprail.org/news/blog/narp-chairman-reviews-recent-silver-star-trip/
Bob Stewart's observations bare out what anyone with a grain of sense should have expected in this matter. Of course Amtrak will temporarily "save" money on food service on Trains 91/92--because dumping the 3-4 man diner crew can ony result in short-term "savings", but the long-term lossest hrough outraged passengers can not be quantified even by continuing this travesty of a studty until January 31, 2016. Once passengers say "never again" they mean it, not only for themselves, but also for all the friends and colleagues they tell about their atrocious experience. Today riders always have alternatives to train travel.
If Amtrak had been remotely sincere about making this a fair test they would have put an Amfleet II "Diner-lite" service as on the CARDINAL on this train--(or even, God-forbid--put a second attendant on the STAR's lounge car to ease waits and allow for two serving lines). But of course no test was needed for this "experiment", as Amtrak already has a decade of cost/revenue/staffing/service experience with precisely this service model to look at on the CARDINAL. Yes meals are still "included" on that train for sleeper passengers--but fine, if that were the issue take the "included" meals off on the CARDINAL without changing the menu. At least Amtrak would not have destroyed the on-board experience on what is typicaly the first or second most heavily uused long-haul train in the east!
Amtrak is pandering to Congressman Mica because of the inexcuseable cowardice of Joe Boardman in not standing up to Congressional bullying. If the company can not provide even remotely decent service on a 31 hour run then that train will die--a lesson endlessly replicated by the private carriers in the 1960s and which Amtrak fully undersands as well. Even the Boardman cabal understands this truth in the end. "Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it
President
Rail Travel Adventures
Apparently, Amtrak is no better at doing food service out of the lounge car than they are in a diner.
They are, flat out, not good at food service! They have high costs and mediocre quality, at best.
Dining car costs have always been high, even prior to May 1971. A lot of attempts have been made to get these costs down, ranging from snack bars and galley-lounges to SP's automat cars. The question comes down to what sort of service do you want to provide? A fine dining experience is going to cost a lot to provide but is it what the market really wants?
CSSHEGEWISCH Dining car costs have always been high, even prior to May 1971. A lot of attempts have been made to get these costs down, ranging from snack bars and galley-lounges to SP's automat cars. The question comes down to what sort of service do you want to provide? A fine dining experience is going to cost a lot to provide but is it what the market really wants?
My grandfather was the Superintendent of a Class 1's Dining Car & Commisary Department for 20 years prior to his retirement in 1957.
By his own admission, the department never turned a monetary profit during his tenure - nor did Senior Managment intend that it turn a profit on its own. The name of the game was provide reasonably priced meals of high quality as a means of influencing the 'movers & shakers' of the shipping public to favor his company with their business based on a good meal with extrordinary service. My grandfathers job evaluations came in the form of letters written by signifigant parties in the shipping communites to his carrier's Senior Management concerning their experiences on the company's diners as well as keeping the costs in check so that the losses didn't hemmorage from his carriers coffers.
Providing good food to order and good service on a moving vehicle is a high cost undertaking. The staff does not work for 1/2 the minimum wage + tips - they work for a middle class living wage as defined by the various labor agreements. The staff is not teenagers getting their 1st job and having to be trained on a cash register that is keyed with 'Big Mac', 'Large Fries', 'Medium Fries', 'Small Fries', 'Fish Sandwich' etc. etc. etc.
The problem on the SILVER STAR is general to both sleeper and coach passengers. Of course sleeper riders wil be more upset, because 100% of them on-board at meal hours could be expected to eat in the diner, as their fares included in the price paid a very generous allowance for the cost to Amtrak's food services for those meals in the diner. But typically at least 20-25% of long-distance coach riders also use the diner and they lose as well.
More significant is the matter of revenue dilution. Sleeper fares are typically two to four times higher than coach for the same distance traveled. Yes some of this was for food, "porter" service, linens and laundry, but at the end of the day sleeper travelers are much more lucrative to Amtrak than those in coach. And this sleeper market is much less price sensitive, as evidenced by the frequent sell-outs of sleepers months before departure, which Amtrak can rarely respond to due to lack of equipment (which is why I am so concerned about the fate of the VIEWLINER II order).
But at the end of the day quality of service does matter to all riders. Coach passengers are not completely indifferent to being treated badly. Coach passengers very often patronize the diner--particularly for breakfast (the worst meal in terms of choice/edibility on the "new" trains 91/92). Dinner is the next most common coach passenger choice, with lunch being the meal most often either brought on-board or taken the the cafe car. But Amtrak has guaranteed that even the lunch experience in the cafe car will be terrible by understaffing and understocking, both of which Bob Stewart's report eloquently establishes.
The SILVER STAR "experiment" is so particularly awful because Amtrak made no effort to provide even a slight improvement in the cafe menu or experience. Indeed a short-haul coach passenger on-board only for one lunch may not mind facing a choice of only 4-5 sandwiches, but the same passenger on-board for an overnight run to Miami faces a much more daunting reality. Not only will the choices in the cafe not change, they will almost certainly drop for dinner and especially for breakfast and particularly for the second lunch, as stocks are exhausted, a problem which is notorious on Amtrak. Amtrak almost invariably understocks itsa cafe cars to avoid "wasteage", rather than incentivising its staff to hustle sales. And now with no diner Bob Stewart already confirms that the problem is a reality on the SILVER STAR both in terms of long lines and lack of promised selections from even the stripped down cafe menu. And how many times will that coach rider want to wait in the long cafe car line to buy his "choice" from the harried attendants' ever diminshing supplies? Worse, how will the passenger respond who spends 20 swaying, bumpty minutes in line only to find his choice is already long gone?
This does matter to coach riders and it is insulting to coach passengers as a class and a market base to see bad service as only a sleeper issue. If Amtrak tries to run overnight trains with effectively no on-board services those trains will die exactly as the typical 1960s services did when they also lost their diners, sleepers and decent on-board services.
I rode travesties like the 1968 Penn Central ADMIRAL, which provided only a "Food-bar" coach from Chicago to New York on a 20 hour run. The "menu" offered one hot "entree", and that was a so-called hot beef sandwich (a slice of roast beef with gravy boiled in a bag and served on un-toasted white bread on a paper plate); no hot breakfast (only a donut), and you took it back to your seat to eat in your lap as there were no tables either in the food bar car, nor at your seat. Obviously Amtrak hasn't reached this nadir yet, but if by the second day on the SILVER STAR the cafe car is out of almost every choice but hot dogs we're not far behind.
Amtrak intends to take the next 7 months, including the vital 2015/16 Christmas rush), to collect "data" on the results of the SILVER STAR experiment, but they already know it will be "cheaper" to not pay a 3-4 person diner crew. It will take far longer to know the long-term consequences of deliberately providing terrible service on this train. And we need to be very clear that that is precisely what Amtrak has decided to do here.
By not offering any even mild upgrades to the cafe car menu, by asking the 405,000 annual SILVER STAR passengers to somehow put up with the lines inevitable as one man tries to serve the 555 pasengers who on average ride the SILVER STAR in each direction each day, (405,000/365/2), by deliberately not adding a second attendant to the cafe car, Amtrak has consciously set out to run an experiment that looks not at how service could be modified to be more efficient, while still acceptable. Instead Amtrak has intentionally chosen to run a long distance train (almost its most heavily used long-haul train in the east at that) in the worst manner possible to see how much degradation can be sustained to cut costs. This is an experiment designed to justify at best ending food and sleeper service and at worst to allow for the discontinuance of the train, except perhaps between Jacksonville-Tampa and Miami.
CSSHEGEWISCHA fine dining experience is going to cost a lot to provide but is it what the market really wants?
The issue is not so much 'what the market wants' (which is likely to be flexible, and should have been the fosuc of a considerable amount of Amtrak's market research and testing) so much as it's 'what can Amtrak pay for that fulfils what the market expects'.
The era when dining service could be a 'loss leader' has really been past for the whole of the Amtrak experience -- when you lose money on every train, why spend extra so you can lose even more? If there is a counterpart to 'shippers' in Amtrak service, please tell me what it would be.
So the question becomes something a bit different: Is some net loss on F&B acceptable if it keeps overall profitability for other areas more than commensurately higher -- and, by extension, could a given level of required F&B quality, not justifiable 'by itself', be part of an overall service formula or experience that would achieve 'orofitability' (or reduce unacceptable train-operating losses) in some politically-justifiable way?
My understanding is that some of the 'strange' conventions in standard railroad-car dining -- waiting to be called, waiting in line to be seated, having to write the order yourself -- are already expedients for reducing overhead cost and confusion. Are there potential alternatives, for example the equivalent of 'takeout' -- where a passenger would submit an order 'in writing' ahead of time, and go to the diner at a prearranged time to pick it up on a tray, in a warming sleeve, in a bag, etc. together with a made-up set of condiments, etc.? Is there any safe way to arrange the use of 'leftovers' via steam tables or microwave/convection reheat in the lounge car?
We've already covered some other options in food choices. Something I wonder about is the use of prepackaged 'sandwich kits' instead of making up sandwiches directly that have limited traveling shelf life. This would have the meats or other 'fixins' made up in portion bags, with the bread potentially being supplied at points enroute as needed, or kept as 'dough' and baked a la Subway. Lettuce and other garnishes can be kept in those 'millipore' bags that keep them unwilted for days -- certainly long enough for the Builder even with its chronic delays. Most condiments won't go on until the actual sandwich is assembled, so sogginess is not an issue.
Yes, I'd discount food items after a time, and also discount 'unpopular' meal choices if it begins to look like some choices are running out.
I still think providing 'take-in' service from various regional specialty places, or local restaurants, is a sensible idea, particularly as a service offered to coach passengers. Written orders (carefully verified with the passengers to prevent mistakes) are texted in to the restaurant, which times everything to come out right when needed, net of all delays to the train, then provides 'freaky fast delivery' or whatever when actual train time comes. You might need some POP software enhancement for this -- for example, having clear Roman lettering identifying the name that goes with each bag or item in the received order, and a quick way to scan for missing items or mistakes 'before the train leaves the window' so something can at least in theory be done.
There were plenty of times I saw restaurant managers 'send someone to the supermarket' when something in the larder ran short between commissary deliveries. No reason why that couldn't be done via delivery service, is there? That might not be at Aramark's margins, but it SURE beats the cost of losing even one passenger's business or even goodwill... and, again, accommodating special passenger needs or even whims becomes a relatively painless option.
Something else to consider is donations of the unused food that can't be safely returned to the commissary. That might in fact extend to food donations in some of the communities in the areas the train runs through -- setting up backhaul from the terminal, perhaps, in some cases. If you can't use any part of the food, why throw it out?
I don't think there is any excuse not to have some sort of rudimentary hot breakfast selection -- hotels can often do it for free out of little more than a couple of glorified closets. Again taking a leaf from the PRR, there are lots of interesting 'combination' items, like a version of eggs Benedict made with scrambled eggs, that LOOK as if they are complex and have relatively high perceived value, that involve little if any manipulation even if produced wholly ahead of serving time. If reducing the breakfast to relatively 'hard' items -- think about items like fancy cereal and toppings, or use meats with simpler prep (say, sausage patties and Canadian bacon instead of something that needs to be carefully and attentively fried to be good like strip bacon or links)
What about soup as an option -- what relatively non-spill packaging could be used?
Something that is coming out very forcefully in this Amtrak 'testing' is that the PERCEPTION of service is a big, important item, perhaps one much more significant than food cost. I'd bel willing to bet that a wider selection of items needing minimum prep -- attentively 'served' by people who pay genuine attention -- would be an advantage for most LD service, especially that patronized by people riding 'segments' with inconvenient boarding or arrival times.
Not a substitute for full diner service on the flagship Star, of course; I detect some clear ulterior-motive hands in that 'choice' of guinea pig.
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