Big, Bad, New Fred Frailey

[charlie hebdo]

Fred's column about two months ago had a good idea (but some folks on here would disagree because they want to return to the 1950s):

"Adopt a dining car menu like Amtrak offers its first-class customers on Acela—precooked and prepackaged food that is heated and served on board. These meals taste at least as good as what comes from today’s dining cars and usually better. Amtrak recently rotated between three such menus on Acela. Breakfast options included tomato confit omelet, steak and eggs, a fruit plate or a continental plate, along with granola bars and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. Recent lunch and dinner offerings included Brazilian cod filet, Moroccan beef brisket, double fried chicken, and shrimp biryani, plus rolls and dessert. There is no cooking onboard and no wasted food. A single attendant could serve about one plate per minute, working small microwave and convection ovens."

[oltmannd]

Convicted One

Reading his August, 2018 opinion piece, at first I thought he was crazy. But the more I think about it, the more he makes sense. What he's really talking about is to operate the long distance trains more like tourist railroads. And, IMO, Amtrak has cut back it's offerings to the point that they really don't serve the needs of most people who NEED to get from point A to Point B efficiently, so they have made themselves into a boutique business of sorts already, so why not?

Welcome to the "we need a better Amtrak" club!

Taking the existing routes and trying to fit the trains and schedules to the places people are when they are awake is a noble task, too long ignored by Amtrak.

The club needs as many members as it can find.  It might be the only hope for keeping a national Amtrak....

[Miningman]

Exactly Dude ...would love to say if Amtrak or his wallet Uncle Sam does not want the Empire Builder any longer then it would be a golden opportunity for VIA to buy the equipment but of course they are not in the ordinary people business any longer when it comes to this sort of service. Also they are not that smart. 

[SD70Dude]

I have not yet gotten the August issue, but one must be careful what you wish for.

You could end up with VIA's current Canadian situation, which despite being a beautiful train (inside and out) is unaffordable for the average joe and runs only twice a week during the off-season.  And of course still fails to earn a profit.

Maybe this is just the fence and greener grass thing, but as a Canadian I would much prefer having a Empire Builder-style train up here instead.  At least then the local population would still remember that a passenger train actually runs out here.

[Convicted One]

Reading his August, 2018 opinion piece, at first I thought he was crazy. But the more I think about it, the more he makes sense. What he's really talking about is to operate the long distance trains more like tourist railroads.

And, IMO, Amtrak has cut back it's offerings to the point that they really don't serve the needs of most people who NEED to get from point A to Point B efficiently, so they have made themselves into a boutique business of sorts already, so why not?

Cutting the Lake Shore Limited back to Buffalo surprised me a little, has demand for Chicago-NYC routing dwindled so badly that the New York segment is un needed?  I read elsewhere in the August issue that the Albany-NYC segment is annulled already for infrastructure work, so is it possible this segment might never be added back in? 

Enjoyed Bob Johnston's article this month as well. I'd really like to see Trains magazine delve  deeper in to the counterpoints he presents to Amtraks flippant assertions about non-performance....particularly pressing for a fleshing out of Amtrak's covert "fully allocated cost" accounting methods.  

I do miss Don Philips' "bare knucks" style of investigative reporting, he would be the perfect instrument to persue this latter area.