Passenger Trains > How Much does a Viewliner Diner cost?

So how much of our taxpayer dollars does a new Viewliner diner cost? How many of these new cars are now now redundant as the LCS won't be needing them. All the money spent on these cars is most likely far more than what is being saved by eliminating cooked meals with chefs and wait staff. As I said in a response to another post, these types of meals are fine on planes. Delta One food is actually pretty decent and can be somewhat adjusted to individual requirements. But Delta's longest flight is about 17 hours from ATL to Johannesburg. Not two days and two nights! Even some European day trains have full service diners for journeys that are less than 8 hours. I fear my only long distance train travel in the U.S. will be confined to my annual trip on the Canadian. They even serve extra meals when the train is 12 hours late, which it often is. If VIA can do this, why can't Amtrak which has become a complete joke. How anyone can defend Amtrak now is beyond me.

What were the new baggage cars for, most stations stopped checked baggage as soon as the new cars arrived?

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So how much of our taxpayer dollars does a new
> Viewliner diner cost? How many of these new cars
> are now now redundant as the LCS won't be needing
> them. All the money spent on these cars is most
> likely far more than what is being saved by
> eliminating cooked meals with chefs and wait
> staff. As I said in a response to another post,
> these types of meals are fine on planes. Delta One
> food is actually pretty decent and can be somewhat
> adjusted to individual requirements. But Delta's
> longest flight is about 17 hours from ATL to
> Johannesburg. Not two days and two nights! Even
> some European day trains have full service diners
> for journeys that are less than 8 hours. I fear my
> only long distance train travel in the U.S. will
> be confined to my annual trip on the Canadian.
> They even serve extra meals when the train is 12
> hours late, which it often is. If VIA can do this,
> why can't Amtrak which has become a complete joke.
> How anyone can defend Amtrak now is beyond me.

Umm sorry to say but if your only LD trip in the US will be on The Canadian then I suggest a lesson in geography is warranted!

From what I see, it will be nothing like Delta 1 airline food.

Employee memo says, "ready to serve boxed meals" Is that Delta 1 airline food ? I do not know

mundo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> From what I see, it will be nothing like Delta 1
> airline food.
>
> Employee memo says, "ready to serve boxed meals"
> Is that Delta 1 airline food ? I do not know


DeltaOne on International is next level First Class airline food.
The current Amtrak dining car food is very similar to domestic Delta First class food (Amtrak is a bit better I'd say because of the options, etc).
But this new "chilled beef tenderloin" - come on... cold food for dinner!
Reminds me of the food fart in COACH on a Delta flight where they have chicken wraps.

I am a Platinum on Delta and never wanted to see this on Amtrak :(

I think the most practical solution is for Amtrak to gut the new diners and provide microwave ovens for passengers to heat up Banquet TV dinners that they bring aboard the trains.

Cost of a CAF diner is $2.4 million each X 25 (or $60M) in taxpayer investment.

Cost to build and outfit a dining car is insignificant compared to the expense of operating it for 30-50 years... labor, supplies, maintenance, etc.