Passenger Trains > Deliver Food to My Train...

Digressing from a thread about the sad state on food service on many trains, and Amtrak's experiments with ways to resolve the problem, I wondered if food could be delivered directly to the customer. To the train, at scheduled stops, etc.  Amtrak already does this on the Empire Builder route with well received boxes of fried chicken lunch, so there's no intrinsic reason why it can't be done.

GrubHub is a regional service which operates primarily in the northeast, using restaurant delivery services and cabs to deliver food to homes, work sites, etc.  For Trenton NJ, where the southbound Silver Star is supposed to stop at lunch time, there are 11 restaurants in their network, within five miles, with delivery available. The well regarded Limoncello Pizza and El Taco Picante are listed among the 11.

If you crave an early dinner in Alexandria, the London Curry House, Hard Times Cafe (burgers, steaks, salads), King Pollo Peruvian chicken, and 89 more restaurants are available with delivery

For late dinner in Richmond, there are nine places listed. Sweet Olive Grill has an extensive menu. Bellancino's Pizza. Plaza Azteca.

912foodtogo.com offers 46 places with delivery in the area serving the train station.  BBQ has four places, Japanese has eight places, 11 seafood places, etc.

By Lakeland FL, if you'd like a lunch of Jimmy John's sandwiches, or Papa John's Pizza, both are available. As are several bbq, seafood, etc places

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If the folks at Amtrak are interested in experimenting with food service, they could cut volume deals with 4-5 places in each selected market. Get them bonded (the cab delivery services are, the local vendors may or may not be bonded and insured).  It's not all that hard to do if there's an interest.

Or, cut a deal with Wendy's or Subway etc for enroute catering. Reload with 50 prepared salads. 50 chicken and spinach wraps, etc.  Although I doubt Wendy's would consider a deal, given the last fiasco with Amtrak.

For some reason Pizza has been seen delivered to Amtrak at Glenwood Springs. Maybe they have a store next to the Depot.

Frequently seen footnote in Southern Railway System timetables of the sixties:

"Box lunch available upon notice to conductor."

timecruncher

Did it once while riding The Royal Palm in its waning years as a [coach only] daytime Cincinnati - Atlanta train.  Buddy of mine and I were headed to Chattanooga and the conductor asked if we wanted the box lunch at Somerset, Kentucky.  Seems to me it was all of $1.25 and included a 4-piece chix dinner with fries and slaw and a big iced tea and was cold, but fairly tasty.  I was maybe 17 years old and our friend in Chattanooga ended up working us to death at TVRM laying track for a full day!
 

I've seen this twice, once at Elko and again at Winnemucca, while riding the CZ. It seems that pizza is the meal of choice when delivered trackside or you have a friend deliver it. 

I don't know much about the history of dining car service on Amtrak and I haven't ridden a LD train for many years, but has Amtrak ever tried contracting dining and commisary services out to an independent service provider? If so, what was the net result?

Ive done a bit of research on this over the years, but i focused on longer stops...

For instance, in ABQ there seems to be a pizza place that seems just across the street, nothing stopping someone from ordering ahead and running over there.. Right at Lunch time.
Pizza 9 - http://www.yelp.com/biz/pizza-9-gold-ave-sw-albuquerque
101 Gold Ave Sw
Albuquerque, NM 87102

Tuscon has a really nice restaurant in the depot, my wife and I ate there during a stop westbound, go ahead and call in beforehand, just right about time for dinner anyways. This place is a bit $$$... but hey.. its Vacation..
Maynards -- http://maynardstucson.com/

In El Paso, you can have your choice of LOTS of delivery thats just blocks from the Depot.
Click this link and you will see all that deliver that is close.-- http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Delivery&find_loc=El+Paso%2C+TX&ns=1#start=0&l=g:-106.47529852227308,31.766441731749154,-106.50224935845472,31.748196595197935

When your on the train for days on end, and you have had every meal imaginable in the dining car... you start to get inventive. ;)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/15 20:13 by Technology-Jeske.

Didn't Amtrak try to do something with Subway about 5 or 6 years ago.  The union didn't like it, and I can understand that.  There were issues with non-employees working the trains and not having any training pertaining to the railroads and safety.  I believe the plan was for Subway to have a selection of pre-made products brought aboard the train for sale. There were some other issues if I remember correctly.  I may have some facts wrong and would welcome corrections.

John

wa4umr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Didn't Amtrak try to do something with Subway
> about 5 or 6 years ago.  The union didn't like
> it, and I can understand that.  There were issues
> with non-employees working the trains and not
> having any training pertaining to the railroads
> and safety.  I believe the plan was for Subway to
> have a selection of pre-made products brought
> aboard the train for sale. There were some other
> issues if I remember correctly.  I may have some
> facts wrong and would welcome corrections.
>
> John
Yes, that debacle involved the Empire Service trains.  Then end result was:  no food service at all NYC-Albany, IIRC.

sums007 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wa4umr Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Didn't Amtrak try to do something with Subway
> > about 5 or 6 years ago.  The union didn't like
> > it, and I can understand that.  There were
> issues
> > with non-employees working the trains and not
> > having any training pertaining to the railroads
> > and safety.  I believe the plan was for Subway
> to
> > have a selection of pre-made products brought
> > aboard the train for sale. There were some
> other
> > issues if I remember correctly.  I may have
> some
> > facts wrong and would welcome corrections.
> >
> > John
> Yes, that debacle involved the Empire Service
> trains.  Then end result was:  no food service
> at all NYC-Albany, IIRC.

And of course, in the spirit of how we do things these days, no one would think of trying a similar thing again, perhaps using the first experiment for examples of what might needed to be changed.  I can hear it now...."hey, we tried that once and it didn't work".....god forbid that we "try" it a second or third time, perhaps enough times to get the problems ironed out.  People tend to want things to work perfectly the first time and every time.  Any other outcome is a failure in modern America. 

Seriously, I have thought many times that some sort of arrangement with a major food concessionaire might be one answer to Amtrak's onboard meal issue.  Yes, unions are an issue, especially these days when a company like Amtrak is one of the last vestiges of a labor union where the workers actually make some noise, rightly or wrongly (another issue altogether).  All things are negotiable, especially when one of the alternatives is discontinuance of the jobs in questions altogether. 

warren49 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> (snip)
> Seriously, I have thought many times that some
> sort of arrangement with a major food
> concessionaire might be one answer to Amtrak's
> onboard meal issue.  Yes, unions are an issue,
> especially these days when a company like Amtrak
> is one of the last vestiges of a labor union where
> the workers actually make some noise, rightly or
> wrongly (another issue altogether).  All things
> are negotiable, especially when one of the
> alternatives is discontinuance of the jobs in
> questions altogether. 

I'n some well managed places  "we tried that before" is usually answered by "tell me what's changed, and does that open an opportunity for us?" If nothing has changed, the burden is on the proposer to make a case.

In Subway's case, I'd want to be sure that my modest investment in an experiment with Amtrak doesn't get flushed away again. In Amtrak's case, creating an irritant and probably violating the collectively bargained agreement may be too high a hurdle for management to take on.

But, instituting a few in station longer smoking breaks around meal time at various stations could be the opportunity for local vendors, food trucks, or delivery services to sell a few salads or wrapped sandwiches. If that works, then see how this can be turned to the company's advantage. It may be that the company can sell 3x the beer/soda/ice and 1/3 the meals, creating a lot more revenue and keeping several OBS jobs.

Bring back the Harvey House, it worked 135 years ago.
>
> But, instituting a few in station longer smoking
> breaks around meal time at various stations could
> be the opportunity for local vendors, food trucks,
> or delivery services to sell a few salads or
> wrapped sandwiches. If that works, then see how
> this can be turned to the company's advantage. It
> may be that the company can sell 3x the
> beer/soda/ice and 1/3 the meals, creating a lot
> more revenue and keeping several OBS jobs.

Ah, let's let history repeat itself and bring back those WONDERFUL automatic buffet cars, where the vending machines never worked because vending machines were intended for stationary environments --- not a rough riding railroad car being continuously jostled around!

When he's not playing a harp while floating around on a cloud, D.J. Russell is probably laughing up a storm.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/15 10:14 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

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Adirondack and Vermonter had box lunches available for sale into the 21sr century. Bought them on every trip to add variety and digress from traditional Amfleet Cafe food....Amtrak discontinued it.....Seemed popular when I rode the train. And they sold out. Passenger service has increased on both lines since!