Passenger Trains > Dining, other transport modes.

A quick inquiry...

Dining on trains has been discussed in detail here, and we all know about dining while driving on a trip.

I have not taken a bus in years, either Greyhound, Mega-discount or luxury coach, thus I inquire how mealtimes are handled by these modes of transportation in contemporary times.

My childhood memory of Greyhound was simply no meal stops, but it was not a particularly long trip. There may have been a lunch counter at the bus station, but I suspect it was not an option. Charter busses would stop at a travel center (truckstop, large capacity restaurant, or other place which could handle a bus).

If possible I would like to hear about Canada and Mexico too for comparison.

Thank you for your replies
Michael

Last I knew, Greyhound scheduled (short) meal stops at fast-food restaurants or truck stops during its longer runs.

I rode Megabus in 2015 between Oakland and LA. Lunch was a stop near a "travel center" (what we used to call a "truck stop") somewhere at the halfway point. There were several fast food choices within walking distance.

Greyhound is the same. There used to be "Post House Restaurants" (sort of like a Dennys) in some of the larger Greyhound stations; over time, they closed or became Burger Kings.

In the late 80's, the daily Greyhound bus between Southern California and Reno/Sparks would stop for a meal break at the Denny's in Bishop, CA.

Mega bus Los Angeles to Las Vegas NV, is a rest stop at Riverside Metrolink station, using vending machines.

Megabus I rode stopped at Buttonwillow for a food stop.

Greyhound I often ride (the redeye "LA Express") usually makes a straight shot from the Bay Area to the LA Basin with no food stops, but I suspect the "slower" SF-LA service makes a food stop somewhere in between, based on the schedules.

Red-eye AmBus I ride makes a food stop (McDonald's) at King City.

This might be the perfect thread to go off topic and mention dining options for trains in Japan.

The fastest mode, the Shinkansen, offers food cart services inside the train, usually with a choice of 3-4 different bentos, plenty of snacks (chips, cookies), and at least two different types of ice cream. Plenty of drink choices, including alcohol. It's pretty fascinating how all that fits on a cart.

Most passengers purchase their food at train stations. In a typical Shinkansen station, there are at least 3 stores offering bentos, usually at least one on the platform itself. Each store can offer at least a dozen choices, and even if served cold, the food is very flavorful for the price you pay (600 yen to 2000+ yen, or $5 to $20). Major stations like Tokyo and Shin-Osaka have about a dozen competing stores selling bentos, with eye-popping choices.

One of the tricks I enjoy is "bento dash" when I'm riding a Shinkansen that is getting passed by a faster one at a station. I hop off, buy a bento specific for that region on a platform-located store (Unagi, or eel in Hamamatsu, for example), and hop back on, all within 5 minutes.

So passengers in Japan eat their food at their seats.

However, even after mentioning all this, I still want a dining car (or at least a cafe car) for trains here in the U.S.

Shinkansen used to have a cafe car (Type 0), and even a dining car (Type 100, on display at Kyoto Railway Museum) and they were very popular. I've used the cafe car decades ago. When the top speed increased from 210 km/h to 240 km/h, and eventually 270 km/h, the cafe/dining cars were less feasible economically, due to time constraints - less people were served, less time spent on the train, etc. Airplane logic had to be used, since the train sets couldn't be extended beyond 16 cars for infrastructure reasons, and seating space became a premium, due to overcrowding from immense popularity as the primary mode of transportation for majority of travellers. Yup, standing room only. Over the years, 30 minute headway became 3 minute headways, as increasing the consist from 12 to 16 cars wasn't enough.

But the necessity of food onboard the Shinkansen never went away, witnessed by all the bento stores at stations (with popular items usually selling out by the late afternoon), and the existence of food cart services onboard.

We don't have such a "nice problem to have" here, so if there's a cost effective way to keep the dining and cafe cars on the LD trains, we should absolutely pursue it. It makes the train experience unique and enjoyable, and as I mentioned in another thread, one or two "non-revenue" car in an Amtrak consist isn't that big of a deal.