Passenger Trains > Capitol Limited consist Oct/Nov

I'm riding the Capitol Limited the end of Oct and again first week of Nov and am wondering whether there's any chance of having a real dining car and a Sightseer Lounge.  The timetable says "Sightseer Lounge available seasonally"  and I realize there might be a cross-country cafe.  
Can dinner reservations be made while in the Lounge in Chicago? 

When we traveled Sept. 10th the lounge agent made our dinner reservations for us.

Andy

A cross country diner is nothing more then a full diner with fewer tables and only one food elevator.  For 95% of the train loadings it can peform just a well as a full diner, since reduced staffing is in place for either car.  The one elevator can provide problems at times.  Few customers would even know the differance.

One can hope the full lounge is on.   Otherwise snack service from one end of the cross country car.
The idea of special "Cross Country Menus and service, was only tried for a while on the City of New Orleans and Eagle that I am aware of.

On Sunday, October 11 we rode 30 from Pittsburgh to Harpers Ferry where we spent the day and returned on 29.  Train 30 had the cross-country cafe car and Train 29 had a full diner.  Both trains had the sightseer lounge car.

I prefer the CL to LSL when going east, mainly because of the Superliner Lounge and the great scenery in the Appalachians.  Transiting west through Pittsburgh going across the river and seeing the buildings and city lights is really cool.  Pittsburgh is truly a remarkable city at night.

It would be nice for Amtrak to consistently have the Superliner Lounge car on every Superliner consist.  The car is the ice breaker for people who are "iffy about riding the train". The panoramic views from the car really "sells the value of Amtrak service" and surely is a conversation piece once folks get back home from their cross country trip.  As an example, I took groups of skiers to Winter Park from Chicago and upon leaving Denver, everyone was glued to the window once we began to climb the grade up into the canyon on the way to the Moffat Tunnel.  Everyone was amazed and I am sure the experience has created some Amtrak fans and repeat riders.  I believe that the value of the Superliner Lounge should be well-featured in every Amtrak commercial and a highlight video linked to Amtrak.com...that clearly and carefully showcases the areas of the country with unique scenery on every Amtrak LD trip.

Recently, my neighbor, acting upon my suggestion rode the CL from Chicago to Washington round trip with his wife.  They had the Roomette and spent a reasonable portion of their daylight hours in the Superliner Lounge.  They found the service attentive and the food reasonably good.  I got a kick out of their comments about that large garbage can in the middle of the car.  It seems that the car was rather full.  Some people complained about the lack of seating, or shortage of seating because of that large garbage can device that takes up quite a lot of space by the refreshment bar located by the stairs.  My understanding is some passengers were laughing about the size of the garbage can.  I'm told one guy named it the "Amtrak Moose Freezer". 

I have to agree: that big, freezer-sized garbage can is plunked right in the middle of the car and combined with "that bar" obstructs the view through at least 6 windows and one third of the car.  Newly configured seating and a reasonable size garbage can would give another 10 passengers better seating and everyone in the area a much better view out the window.  Of course that translates to more opportunities to sell Angus Cheeseburgers and Sam Adams among other items.  Another point... why is that "refreshment bar and storage cabinet thing" there in the first place?  I've been riding Superliners since 1985 and not once saw that bar in use by any crew member, except people recharging their phones and laptops!  The new tables at one end of the car are nice, but we need more single seats to stretch out in.  Right where "that bar thing" and "Amtrak Moose Freezer" is located!  Amtrak: is there room to be more creative?

In my opinion, the "flagship train" between the East Coast and Midwest is now the Capitol Limited. Gone is the Broadway Limited (and its counterpart the Three Rivers). The Cardinal I don't even consider as an East Coast to Midwest train due to its meandering route that serves many different communities and locales. And the Lake Shore Limited - as a single level train - just doesn't offer all the amenities a Superliner train has to offer. And one of the greatest of these is the Superliner Sightseer Lounge Car. There's absolutely no reason to run this car "seasonally." Amtrak has some great advertising going on right now, why ruin it with messing with consists and misrepresenting their advertisements. This is partially what led tourist agencies to stop recommending Amtrak to their clients because of such inconsistencies. Say what you want about VIA Rail's shrinking and limited long distance network, but at least the Ocean and Canadian are operated with some consistency. The Canadian may be consistently late, but they put passengers up in hotels when there are delayed departures, for example.

Amtrak just can not offer a consistent product. Don't mess with the Sightseer Lounge cars, there's no reason to. If they want to remove a car - take the baggage car off and put a coach/baggage car on. But no, Amtrak thinks it can make a pile of money with the baggage car on the Capitol Limited.

I agree that you really can't tell too much of a difference between operation of the Cross Country Cafe and Full Dining Car. It's just that the Cross Country Cafe has dead space on teh "lounge" portion. It gets absolutely no utilization. Yes, these Superlienr I diners needed renovation, but they should have just put table seating on both sides and called it a day..............The grandoise plans surrounding what was truly supposed to happen between the Cross Country Cafe and Sightseer Lounge was totally ridiculous and got derailed quickly. Unfortunately, for some cars it wasn't quick enough, And the Amfleet II Lounge Cars still need modifications. Let's go there though, just keep the Capitol Limited as the flagship "showcase train" between East Coast and Chicago. It'd be nice to have the Broadway Limited back, but that just is not in the cards!

 

The Capitol Ltd is no "flagship".

When all LD trains were ranked a few years ago in terms of composite score of farebox recovery, on time performance, and customer survey index, it ranked 4th from the bottom of 15. (4 of the bottom 5 were Superliner trains) Superliners and the Sightseer car are irrelevant.  The Capitol Ltd's Achilles heal is poor load factor east of Pittsburgh, lack of a NY section, and tired Pennsylvanian refugees west of Pittsburgh. That's why it has a P.I.P. to correct all of that, and among the first of 3 groups of 5 trains to get such an analysis.

The reason they cut to one food service car January-March is that there is simply an insufficient number of people riding to justify it.

The upper level serving area was once staffed on the Empire Builder east of Whitefish in the summer. Fear of John Mica ended that around 2010 or 2011. It was unstaffed when I rode it in 2012. Yes , the garbage bins are stupidly placed. The Amfleet-2 dinette cars were also stupidly re-designed. It seems that everything food-service that Amtrak touches, they mess up.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/15 05:55 by joemvcnj.

I once saw the upper level "bar" open and serving on #6 between the S.F. Bay Area and Reno. It was in the 80s. Molson Golden was available for $1.00. The bar closed arriving Reno. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/15 17:27 by carsoncity.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Capitol Ltd is no "flagship".
>
> When all LD trains were ranked a few years ago in
> terms of composite score of farebox recovery, on
> time performance, and customer survey index, it
> ranked 4th from the bottom of 15. (4 of the bottom
> 5 were Superliner trains) Superliners and the
> Sightseer car are irrelevant.  The Capitol Ltd's
> Achilles heal is poor load factor east of
> Pittsburgh, lack of a NY section, and tired
> Pennsylvanian refugees west of Pittsburgh. That's
> why it has a P.I.P. to correct all of that, and
> among the first of 3 groups of 5 trains to get
> such an analysis.
>
> The reason they cut to one food service car
> January-March is that there is simply an
> insufficient number of people riding to justify
> it.
>
> The upper level serving area was once staffed on
> the Empire Builder east of Whitefish in the
> summer. Fear of John Mica ended that around 2010
> or 2011. It was unstaffed when I rode it in 2012.
> Yes , the garbage bins are stupidly placed. The
> Amfleet-2 dinette cars were also stupidly
> re-designed. It seems that everything food-service
> that Amtrak touches, they mess up.

I am coming from this on a little different angle. In terms of service, schedule, and the fact that it has Superliners and a Superliner Sightseer Lounge, I have found that this train is more preferred from East Coast to Midwest (Chicago). Those who often were regulars on the Broadway or Lake Shore I've now heard or seen on the Capitol Limited. At meal times, when destinations are often talked about, I've heard many people say they shifted to the Cap over the Lake a ashore for various reasons. Many also prefer the Superliner equipment over the single level equipment (more bedrooms, seemingly more space). 

The Lake Shore gets the benefit of serving NYP and Boston. It would be interesting to see where the Lake Shore would rank if there was a full service single level train on the former Broadway Limited route (shifted to the Capitol Limited route west of Pittsburgh). Full service as in at least two Viewliners and a full service diner...

The Capitol Limited would be a stronger train if it split it's consist at Pittsburgh - one section for WAS and the other to NYP/Philly.