Passenger Trains > Silver Meteors stored in Philadelphia

Pending return to Florida service, Meteor train sets are at Penn Coach Yard, photographed Sunday morning.

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Diners 68003 Augusta and 68005 Boston were present.

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The KRL flat cars seem out of place in that yard.

boejoe Wrote:
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> The KRL flat cars seem out of place in that yard.

They are used by the MW forces for track material, such as panels and rail -- all kinds of stuff.

Brian

Cool! Two of three consists appear to be Silver Star sets with two sleepers and no diner. The one in the middle is a Meteor consist with three sleepers and a diner.

Dave

I guess we're lucky penn coach yard is still there. seems its half vacant most of the time, since so little originates at 30th st anymore (other than MU's upstairs). If UP owned it, they wuda torn out most of it and put up a vacant lot long ago.

With all the new diners in service, why doesn't the Silver Starvation have a diner? How they can run an overnight train with no proper meal service is beyond me..especially when equipment is now available. Oh wait. Those diners are toooooo old. So I guess Acadian that I had the pleasure of having several meals in a few weeks ago on VIA No. 1 is tooooo old also. Funny, doesn't look like it or act like it.

I think the Cardinal is more likely to get a VL-II diner to replace the Am-2 dinette than the Starvation. That train at least has more staff and pretends to have some table service. After that, and the Lake Shore, 5 Am-2 dinettes would be freed up, then maybe cascade to the Pennsylvanian, Palmetto, or Adirondack.

Crescent would also be a candidate for new diners. Once the a/c issue is resolved.

Posted from Android

be cool to work on these while idle

or call some steam cleaners to do the carpets



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/17 07:14 by dan.

dan Wrote:
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> be cool to work on these while idle

That is an excellent idea! Why not do a maintenance
blitz,the way the RRs have their MoW crews do on their
tracks?

andersonb109 wrote --
> With all the new diners in service, why doesn't the
> Silver Starvation have a diner? How they can run an
> overnight train with no proper meal service is beyond
> me..especially when equipment is now available. Oh wait.
> Those diners are toooooo old. So I guess Acadian that I
> had the pleasure of having several meals in a few weeks
> ago on VIA No. 1 is tooooo old also. Funny, doesn't look
> like it or act like it.

I agree completely with "andersonb109" that is it ridiculous
that any long-distance train has no proper meal service. We
are almost always forced to accept crappy standards when doing
things right is not exactly rocket science.

And treating passengers and customers like crap enables
and encourages said passengers and customers to behave
badly. People will live up to -- or down to! -- whatever
standards are set by the bigger organizations they come
into frequent contact with. So -- let's set high
standards.

We passengers need and deserve to be treated very well,
and we have a right to expect excellent service and products.
We all deserve that. And there is, as a matter of fact, plenty
of money to do what we passengers -- and customers -- want and
need. It is just both being hoarded and spent on the wrong things.
So -- please do not try to convince me or anyone that there is not
enough money to do things properly. There is.

The diner is probably never coming back, and no amount of complaining on TO makes a difference. There is no evidence that dropping the diner has hurt ridership on the Silver Star. There is a strong presumption that dropping the diner has lessened the train's financial loss.

When one looks at the operation of diners, keep in mind that 98% of the coach passenger's CANNOT afford to eat in one, even if they are on the train during a meal period. The loadings are more local/short distance in comparison to the Meteor.

They either bring their own food or payout dearly to the Snack car.

Makes it difficult for those going to the Tampa area in sleepers, with the star the only service.

This is not to say that a diner, along with the new Sleepers, could build this train back up in Revenue, but until the bean counters will stand up to a few Amtrak funding haters, we will not see much if any improvement on the food/beverage service on ANY train.

The lack of coach passengers in the diners is one reason most diners are now down to 3 or 4 persons diner crews even in the heavy summer season.

Yes, I hope the Cardinal gets a diner, even if only one cook and one server. It would enhance that train.

The standard menu of choice for all LD trains is not helping the issue either. Same O same O on every train. But will say over all, I have had good quality meals and service.

mundo Wrote:
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> When one looks at the operation of diners, keep in
> mind that 98% of the coach passenger's CANNOT
> afford to eat in one, even if they are on the
> train during a meal period. The loadings are more
> local/short distance in comparison to the Meteor.
>
> They either bring their own food or payout dearly
> to the Snack car.
>
> Makes it difficult for those going to the Tampa
> area in sleepers, with the star the only service.
>
> This is not to say that a diner, along with the
> new Sleepers, could build this train back up in
> Revenue, but until the bean counters will stand up
> to a few Amtrak funding haters, we will not see
> much if any improvement on the food/beverage
> service on ANY train.
>
> The lack of coach passengers in the diners is one
> reason most diners are now down to 3 or 4 persons
> diner crews even in the heavy summer season.
>
> Yes, I hope the Cardinal gets a diner, even if
> only one cook and one server. It would enhance
> that train.
>
> The standard menu of choice for all LD trains is
> not helping the issue either. Same O same O on
> every train. But will say over all, I have had
> good quality meals and service.


Not all the Coaches people are Cheap in diner, so half of people in coaches eat there in diner.

Having ridden the Silver Star frequently over the last 15 years, I disagree that half the coach passengers went to the diner -- at least not on the southbound out of DC. Perhaps 1 in 20 did.

dan Wrote:
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> be cool to work on these while idle

Interesting idea, but the M/E forces assigned to Penn Coach and Race Street are insufficient to take on work of this magnitude.

Maybe not cheap on the Star, but believe me on the Southwest, Eagle and Sunset, Damm few eat in diner.
Starlight is an exception and suspect the Empire Builder may be an exception also.

On some trains. some do take advantage of a coach meal served at your seat, but even that is $10 and $12.00.

Understand, coming is a early bird early chicken dinner in diner for $12.00 on the LD trains.

half of coach passengers eat in the diner?

that sounds like a high estimate, based on what some folks have posted here

I think Silver Service trains are really difficult to compare to east-west services. 98/97 make the trip in a scheduled 27 hours, and cater to a good number of regular riders. Dinner on both the Star and Meteor was still heavily patronized by coach and sleeper passengers, but the timing of the Meteor and it's shorter run, are likely factors as to it's retention. My last ride less than a month ago on 91 and 98 saw a good amount of coach patronage in the diner at dinner time; at my table alone I was the only sleeping car passenger at a table of 4, (the AC system of "Boston" was...forceful, but the car was much more spacious).

Consist rotation seems to be screwed up with the shuffle. 19/20 and 91/92 used to rotate, but that's obviously not happening now. 50/51 hasn't had a full service diner in years, and as a Tampa traveler, I've voiced my thoughts on the lack of a diner on 91/92. All I have spoken to (some closer to sources than others) have said it will return , when they have enough of them.

Didn't realize the summer months of travel were heavy to Florida. I've found the northbound traffic heavier, yes, but in the winter S/B snowbirds and warm seekers increases.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> half of coach passengers eat in the diner?
>
> that sounds like a high estimate, based on what
> some folks have posted here

I agree. "Half" is extremely optimistic. Based on my experience on the Crescent, patronage from the coaches is very light. I've seen many coach pax do a "180" and exit the diner once they look at the selections and the prices.

Paul Wilson
Arlington, VA