Passenger Trains > Albany Times Union on the missing Lake Shore Diners

http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-business/article/Amtrak-replaces-dining-cars-used-on-Lake-Shore-8404195.php

Unless you subscribe to the Times Union, you'll get a big flag
telling you to subscribe...and it covers most of the text.

Here is the article in full:

> Amtrak replaces dining cars used on Lake Shore Limited

> Frame cracks
> found in old units, replacement dinettes made in 1980s
>
> By Eric Anderson; Friday, July 22, 2016
>
> Rensselaer
>
> The postwar-era dining cars on the Lake Shore Limited that Amtrak
> inherited from freight railroads in 1971 have been removed from
> service, an Amtrak spokesman confirmed this week.
>
> They've been replaced by newer Amfleet II dinettes, which date from
> the early 1980s.
>
> The Empire State Passengers Association, a rail advocacy
> organization, said that cracks had been discovered in the frames of
> several of the dining cars, raising safety concerns that forced their
> removal from service.
>
> The dining cars had been scheduled for retirement upon the arrival of
> new single-level dining cars being manufactured by CAF USA at its
> plant in Elmira Heights. But those cars are nearly three years
> overdue, according to Amtrak's inspector general.
>
> The $300 million order for 130 single-level railcars, placed in 2010,
> includes 25 dining cars. So far, only baggage cars have been
> delivered to Amtrak. The contract, which was to be completed in
> November 2014, likely won't be completed until at least 2017,
> Amtrak's inspector general said.
>
> Efforts to reach officials at the CAF USA plant and at its Washington
> headquarters weren't successful.
>
> Amtrak is offering table service on the Amfleet dinettes, as well as
> a menu with a number of breakfast, lunch and dinner items. A photo on
> ESPA's Facebook page showed linen tablecloths on the dinette's
> tables, but one passenger complained on trainorders.com that the
> tableware was plastic and the meals were prepackaged. The "heritage"
> diners, meanwhile, had full kitchens.
>
> The Lake Shore Limited operates daily between Chicago and
> Albany/Rensselaer, with sections continuing to and from Boston and
> New York City.

Good to see train orders cited as a source. I wonder where ESPA got its fancy table picture?

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