Passenger Trains > Lake Shore food questions

As I noted in a previous post, I had booked a Lake Shore trip before Amtrak's latest "enhancement". I have been sorting through a million or so posts on this topic trying to get some idea of what I might expect. I think the NYC operation will be restored by the time of my Sept. trip and I will be connecting from the Adirondack in Schenectady.

So if the LSL is on time (it could happen) I suppose maybe I get my box of goodies when I board or shortly after.

Where does my free drink come from? The sleeper attendant won't have any. Does he go and get it, from...Where?

If I go to the table car, or picnic lounge, or whatever they are calling it, which I will because I do not want to eat in my room, is there Amtrak help there?

Where does one obtain the soft drinks, juice, etc that Mr. Anderson is bestowing on us? From past experience, I would expect the pitiful little amfleet snack bar will be completely overwhelmed, understaffed and short stocked.

I wonder what the Amtrak on board people get to eat? Won't be any diner meals.

It sounds like the new diners are supposed to be used. They say no table service, so just bare tables? Will they have big paper bags so we can bus our own tables?

Since Amtrak is not selling any food in the diner can I bring something in to eat? If not, why not, certainly won't be hurting their bottom line.

I know there is really no way to answer much of the above, since the enhances have not started yet. I am looking forward to reports. It should be interesting to say the list. I don't know why I am wasting so much time on this but I was sort of looking forward to my trip. I will be on board with two old friends with whom I have never taken a long train trip. This has gone from something I rather anticipated to just something to endure, rather like a plane ride come to think of it.

Good questions. Maybe, just maybe if he will continue putting the new diners in the consist he would allow customers to use the microwave and other tools in the modern, brand new, multi-million dollar kitchen to prep their own brought on board food??

Perhaps the sleeping car passengers can elect someone from their ranks to be honorary "chef" for that meal and be in charge of the galley so it stays neat and tidy???

Should be interesting???

Ross Rowland

I am traveling to St. Louis from NY in late July, I chose to forgo the LSL and Cap and chose the Cardinal instead. Although I'm not crazy about Diner Lite at least (for the time being) there is hot food service. I'm hoping that all the pushback I've seen here, plus the angst of Heavy hitters like Bennett Levin and Ross Rowland will put the kibosh on this.

Steve

How does Anderson know that sleeping car ridership will not plummet with the cheesy boxed meal service?

mp51w Wrote:
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> How does Anderson know that sleeping car ridership
> will not plummet with the cheesy boxed meal
> service?

I suppose the corollary is how do you know that it will? Seems to me the core business of Amtrak is transportation and as I've mentioned before, customers choose transportation based on schedule and price by a wide margin and this is universal across modes inclusive of rail. Amenities such as food fall relatively far down the list - higher for sure on an overnight segment.

My guess is that with either "boxed" cold food or no food the bottom will drop out of the sleeping car business as most of it is made up of folks who have many other options to choose from and without any amenities will not go " Pullman".

IMHO-Ross Rowland

Distressingly surprisingly, the negative impact of no complementary food on the Silver Star has been much more muted, if any, on Sleeper bookings, than all us railfans had hoped for. So it is really quite hard to tell how this will play out on a train with a net running time of 20 hours or less, with only two meals involved.

The Silver Star sleeping and diner charges have been separated, so sleeper prices came down. Generally, NEC-Florida overhead business has always been higher on the Silver Meteor. The Silver Star is more like 2 day trains, thinning out overnight.

Splitting out sleeper and diner charges is not happening with the Lake Shore and Capitol Ltd. For those who have paid up and travelling after May 31, this is a sleazy game of what in retail is called bait & switch, especially with the cancellation penalties not waived. .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/18 14:39 by joemvcnj.

Jishnu Wrote:
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> Distressingly surprisingly, the negative impact of
> no complementary food on the Silver Star has been
> much more muted, if any, on Sleeper bookings, than
> all us railfans had hoped for. So it is really
> quite hard to tell how this will play out on a
> train with a net running time of 20 hours or less,
> with only two meals involved.


Truer words were never spoken.

Jishnu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Distressingly surprisingly, the negative impact of
> no complementary food on the Silver Star has been
> much more muted, if any, on Sleeper bookings, than
> all us railfans had hoped for. So it is really
> quite hard to tell how this will play out on a
> train with a net running time of 20 hours or less,
> with only two meals involved.

With the implementation of no-diner on the Silver Star, there was a concurrent drop in roomette prices to 'erase' the added-in cost of dining car meals. Depending on how (un)-sold out the train may be, there may be $100 or more price difference for a roomette between common cities with the Meteor. I recall, too, reading somewhere that the Star is now more 'profitable' than the Meteor (less loss per passenger, I think was quoted).

As a 'preview' of cold dinners to come, I just rode the Empire Builder from Portland, leaving 2 days ago. I hadn't ridden the Portland section in 30 years or more! As that section has only the lounge car, the sleeper passengers were offered a choice of steak, chicken, or fish premade, cold meal perhaps 10-15 minutes after departing Vancouver by the sleeping car attendant. No beverage was offered, so I washed the meal down with a bottled water I already had in the room. Covered with a clear plastic snap-on tray is the 4-partitioned plastic tray (akin to Swanson TV dinners) with 3 small ones across the top and a big one on the bottom half, were cold string beans, a 2"x2"x.5" fruity bar desert, grapes, and the main course below...a 'corn and tomato salad' (90% corn, maybe 3 large grape-sized tomatoes, sliced in half), and four, 1/4" thick pieces of roast beef roughly 2"x2" each. The plastic utensils in the package were by far the flimsiest, cheapest plastic utensils I have ever encountered! I thought for sure I'd break the knife or fork on the 'steak' but carefully avoided doing so. Salt and pepper packets were in the package as well.

My own scoring of the meal is:

1. I think that a professional chef might give the 'presentation' a score of 8 out of 10.
2. On the 'balanced diet' scale, a 7, as the only starch/bread was in the lemon-tart(?) fruity bar. Lots of veggies, and corn doesn't count.
3. I'd give it a 8 on a 'tasty' scale. It was a good combination of flavors between corn, tomatoes, beef, grapes and the beans.
4. Overall, I give it a 6 or 7. I'm a meat and potatoes guy. All those veggies are a bummer, in my book. I ate all of the beef, 30% of the corn/tomato salad, some of the beans, all the grapes and all the fruit tart thing.
5. I seriously considered going to the lounge car and getting a pizza and a coke after eating the meal. However, knowing I'd be getting a cold-dinner special, I had a late lunch of a hamburger and chips about 2PM, so I was full enough and didn't need more food.
6. Not being offered a beverage with the meal is a big negative on my opinion. Maybe that's the fault of my sleeping car attendant.
7. Except for the family BR and handicap BR, the sleeper was full out of Portland. Enroute, there were 2 families who took up residence in the family room, one passenger in the handicap room boarded at Fargo (I think), room #13 was 'turned' twice and #11 once. The couple in #12 and me in #14 rode PDX-CHI. So, apparently, 30+ years of cold dinners for the PDX section has not affected passenger count. No diner on the Star may have actually increased sleeper passenger count!(I'm guessing)

Although I live in the Springfield MA area and ride #449/49 several times per year, I take coach SPG-ALB so I can get in the NY section sleepers (away from the incessant horns! - there's countless grade crossings on the route!) next to the Amdinette and get an almost 'real diner' meal. On 449 & 448, sleeping cars get a choice of 2-3 items that are nuked and served in the table area of the car, or in their rooms. It depends on who the cafe car attendant is, I guess.

Like any manager of any corporation, part of how well they are performing is measured by how well they can keep a tight budget and still get good business results. Mr Anderson is no different. Part of how he will be rated by the Amtrak board of directors as well as the gang on Capitol Hill is how much 'fat' can he trim out of the Food & Beverage account. Ex-Congressman John Mica must be proud of him! Regrettably, I have little expectation that the dining car 'experience' will be with us much longer.

I can live with it for one night, but if they get rid of hot food on all the trains, especially the 2 night west coast trains, that will make it less appealing... it won't stop me completely, but I might choose to do it less often.

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