Passenger Trains > Hungry Empire Builder

This morning's westbound Empire Builder heading for Seattle is having a rough trip. Passing Skykomish about 55 minutes late about an hour ago, it had a BNSF leader and no diner. I have no idea what they'll do for food service on 8 tonight out of Seattle. There's no spare diner in Seattle that I know of. I guess the only option would be to grab either the lounge or the diner off the Coast Starlight. We'll have to see if that's what Amtrak did, assuming a crew was available. The  southbound Coast Starlight left Seattle about 55 minutes ago.

I thought one of the train sets had been running with a 37000 Superliner Cross Country Cafe Car, but I guess not. Even that would be rough for the Builder with three full sleepers and a Superliner Trans/Dorm Sleeper (3.5 revenue sleepers). Typical SOP is to bring food aboard at various stops if the Diner is bad-ordered, etc. Not having a full Superliner Diner on the major western long hauls makes it a "rough trip" for those sleeper car passengers aboard and then stresses out the cafe in the Superliner Sightseer Lounge car......

Won't help for the Builder on the West Coast, but there "should be" an extra diner in Chicago when they get back due to the City of New Orleans being cancelled - one train set is evidently in good order out of the three. Cancellations continue on the CONO till July 7th out of Chicago! 

Meanwhile, on number 3 today, someone claiming to be a passenger posted in the Southwest Chief group on FB that they have a diner, but no food.

That’s the claim.

The poster said their sleeping car attendant told them they neglected to stock the diner in Chicago, so they’re going to order food and have it delivered to the train.

Not sure if that will be for the entire journey, or just until they can bring aboard supplies. What are the odds of Amtrak being able to stock the diner in Kansas City?

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/26 14:12 by walstib.

That's why as bad as the class ones are run, it's better than the government running them.

Posted from Android

AmJOKE

How do you leave the station with an unstocked diner? In yard crew should be demanding, in station they should be yelling to get their supplies.

I saw a post yesterdays 7 arriving Seattle (4) had diner with water issues and they ordered pizza the night before. This would make 2 consists with bad orderdiners

walstib Wrote:
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> What are the odds of Amtrak being able to stock the
> diner in Kansas City or Denver?
>
> Posted from iPhone

Well, the odds of stocking the diner in Denver are zero, since the train doesn't go through Denver.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/26 14:10 by SensiblySarcastic.

Ha! Good catch.

I must have been confusing this with a Zephyr dining car mishap!

Posted from iPhone

I believe the dining car crew get on the car in the yard. So you are telling me they found out no food on the diner until after they left Chicago?
How many times has the dinner and other cars left Chicago and no water?
Oh well this is are new Amtrak or Amtrash?
Dennis

Posted from iPhone

I believe the dining car crew get on the car in the yard. So you are telling me they found out no food on the diner until after they left Chicago?
How many times has the dinner and other cars left Chicago and no water?
Oh well this is are new Amtrak or Amtrash?
Dennis

Posted from iPhone

walstib Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ha! Good catch.
>
> I must have been confusing this with a Zephyr
> dining car mishap!

I knew that you knew better, as your posts always demonstrate a level of knowledge over and above a blooper like that. At my age we call it a brain fart, which I suspect you were having for a hot second. lol

The more serious point is that, once upon a time, there were commissaries stuck here and there around the Amtrak system which might have been called upon in a situation such as this. But the bean counters got their way, and about 30 years ago Amtrak farmed out the commissaries to a private company, and at that point anyway, many had long since been deemed superfluous and closed. So I imagine the best hope today would be for a ticket office employee (and they are also cut to the bone and typically wouldn't be able to spare anybody to do this) to go shopping at Hy-Vee and bring back a bunch of Stouffer frozen dinners. Failing that, of course, there's always KFC!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/26 14:31 by SensiblySarcastic.

walstib Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Meanwhile, on number 3 today, someone claiming to
> be a passenger posted in the Southwest Chief group
> on FB that they have a diner, but no food.
>
> That’s the claim.
>
> The poster said their sleeping car attendant told
> them they neglected to stock the diner in Chicago,
> so they’re going to order food and have it
> delivered to the train.
>
> Not sure if that will be for the entire journey,
> or just until they can bring aboard supplies. What
> are the odds of Amtrak being able to stock the
> diner in Kansas City?
>
> Posted from iPhone

A call to a restaurant supply company would fix that and they even deliver. 

cajon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I believe the dining car crew get on the car in
> the yard. So you are telling me they found out no
> food on the diner until after they left Chicago?
> How many times has the dinner and other cars left
> Chicago and no water?
> Oh well this is are new Amtrak or Amtrash?
> Dennis
>
> Posted from iPhone

More like Amcrap since all we've heard since Airline Boy was CEO is canceled trains because of snow, this recent issue with bad ordered cars and I don't get why 14TH St. didn't load the diner and the new locomotives being nothing but junk anyway!

I just boarded #28 in Portland. The fact that no diner would be coming from Seattle on #8 was only announced to passengers as they were boarding #28 in Portland a few minutes ago. And station staff in Portland wouldn't have even known if I hadn't inquired after seeing the original post above and asked them to check. Obviously, this has been known all day or probably a couple days but passengers were not informed (which would have allowed passengers to either cancel or to bring more of their own food. Incredibly disrespectful to their customers. I'm glad I'm only going to Whitefish so it isn't a big deal for me. But people going all the way to Chicago are freaking out right now.

Does Amtrak have a policy for partial refunds, or at least vouchers, in cases like this?  Because for many sleeping car passengers the dining car is an important part of the experience and what makes the expense worthwhile for them.


 

Judging from the delay reports on the No. 7 that arrived in Seattle this morning, I would guess they had to set the diner out at Minot. 7 arrived there early and left well over an hour late. It'll be interesting to see if BNSF or some contractor can fix it by the time today's 8 out of Seattle gets there. The question is, did the crew stay with the dead diner or did it stay with the train.

Morw likely there was an atrempt to fix it not cut car out asit was not an operstional issue such as stuck brakes or suspension. Also mechanical staff is in Seattle for potential repairs

Yes got it confirmed diner on #7 was set out in Minot yesterday morning. I don't know what the issue was. To make matters worse for passengers on today's 28, there is no water in the bathrooms on the sleeper, passengers are being asked to "bucket flush." And the A/C in the lounge car is barely functioning. The inability to communicate by management is bizarre. Amtrak normally sends texts to passengers informing them of late trains. This lack of a diner was known since yesterday morning. But neither passengers nor crew had any idea upon departure of 28 today. There was even a (false) announcement shortly after 28 departed that the diner would be joining 28 in Spokane. This was after passengers had been told in the station that there would be no diner. Creating a lot of confusion. I swear hobos are treated better by BNSF than Amtrak treats its customers

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/26 18:04 by Soo715.

A passenger reported in the Empire Builder group on FB that the diner on number 7 experienced trouble with the water lines, resulting in pizza and other meals being brought aboard.

However, I’ve lost track of which day’s train that was. Not sure if it was the train discussed in this thread, or a day or two earlier.

There have been so many failures lately that I need a scorecard to keep track. Seth probably has a better handle on which train had the diner water issues.

Posted from iPhone

How exactly does “bucket flush” work if there is no water on the sleeper?

And do those air flush toilets even flush with a bucket of water?

Posted from iPhone