Passenger Trains > Amtrak discontinuing diners reported on airline newswire

This from this morning's businesstraveler.com, an airline news wire, along with a reader's comment:


Amtrak has announced that it will discontinue dining-car service for sleeper-class passengers on its Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited trains, and instead will offer pre-made “contemporary and fresh dining choices” that some critics have compared to airline food.

“Sleeping car customers will choose meals delivered to their bedrooms or Roomettes – or eaten in a private café or lounge car,” according to an Amtrak press release.

Breakfast options will include assorted breads with butter, cream cheese and strawberry jam, Greek yogurt, and a fresh fruit plate. The lunch and dinner menu will include chilled beef tenderloin, a vegan wrap, chicken Caesar salad, or a turkey club sandwich.

The meals will be “delivered to the trains just prior to origination, eliminating on-board preparation,” according to Amtrak. Customers will also be offered unlimited soft drinks, a single serving of beer, wine or a mixed-drink, and an amenity kit included in the price of their sleeper-class ticket.

The Capitol Limited runs from Washington, DC, to Chicago, via Pittsburgh and Cleveland; the Lake Shore Limited connects Chicago and New York.

Amtrak passengers consistently rate hot meals eaten in the communal dining car as one of the most satisfying aspects of rail travel.

“At least the airline meals are hot. Amtrak’s offering is stone cold,” wrote Railway Age editor in chief William C. Vantuono in a recent editorial.

“Seated in coach class? You’re only choice will be the café car, if the train has one. Goodbye dining car service, one of the pleasures of travelling by rail? Is this all part of becoming ‘lean and mean’ (which is perhaps how the food will taste)?”

amtrak.com
Tags: Amtrak

Hugh D. Jones
Posted on 25/04/2018

GET RID OF THIS AIRLINE GUY WHO KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT RAILROADS AND GET A RAILROAD PERSON TO GET THINGS MOVING !!!
WE HAVE BEEN THROUGH THIS TYPE OF SNEAK ATTACK TO GET RID OF THE NATIONAL SYSTEM BEFORE AND SHOULD NOT LET IT HAPPEN.
MR. ANDERSON- GO BACK TO YOURAIRLINE INDUSTRY. WE DO NOT WANT YOU!!!!
Reply



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/18 09:35 by utwazoo.

T Bone Towser is rolling over in his grave!

Who ever decided to hire this Anderson guy should go down with him. What a foolish mistake!!

I've had some excellent meals on Amtrak.

Whether enjoying a steak at 79 mph, or while winding through the mountains, the dining experience is a very big part of rail travel for me. The interesting conversations with complete strangers while sharing a table is also part of the experience.

The current situation is yet another example of how we are losing things in our country that have meaning and significance to the average Joe.

Just when the food quality was at an all time high, and the dining car crews were at their best (for Amtrak), they pull the plug.

This regular long distance, first class paying customer will likely never return without a dining car in the train.

ETTS

Airplane BOY needs to GO.

What is a "private cafe or lounge car?" Currently there are no lounge or cafe cars for exclusive sleeping car passenger use. So exactly how are they private?

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> What is a "private cafe or lounge car?" Currently
> there are no lounge or cafe cars for exclusive
> sleeping car passenger use. So exactly how are
> they private?


Look for the new single level diners to provide the "private cafe or lounge car" on the Lake Shore, and probably other trains in the future.

Lets see the great meals are no more. My dinner on Amtrak about two years ago was not worth eating was some kind of meat that was over seasoned and the rest on the plate was very forgettable. A fast food cold hamburger would have been better and also much cheeper. So the loss of meal service is ok with me as would go to the on board snack bar instead.

I'm not opposed to pre-plated fare--and as others have pointed out, some of the current dining car offerings are dismal, and tend to vary greatly from train to train, and crew to crew. While I've not experienced it first-hand, the food on the City of New Orleans has been roundly panned.

That said, whoever wrote that ham-fisted "Employee Advisory" should be cashiered. A lot of furor has to do with the dismal examples of alleged "contemporary and fresh dining" highlighted in the memo. If the memo had suggested something akin to the offerings in Acela First Class, there would have less of a fuss, and it might even be seen as an upgrade. The Advisory's cold dinner selections and crappy breakfast offerings make it sound almost punitive, especially for customers who are paying the highest fares.

Paul Wilson
Arlington, VA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/18 06:47 by Dcmcrider.

The dining car experience is how I personally sold train travel. Sure it takes longer and might be more expensive, but where else can you get the experience of a dining car while traveling through the country?

Posted from iPhone

I think this topic is a bit like an tough cut of beef which we have been beating to death trying to make it into a steak.

Bringing this kind of information into specialty publications like Business Traveler has a double impact in potentially discouraging higher fare travelers. Even though the article clearly says it is a test on just two lines, I could see a travel arranger deciding that it was all lines. And directing a traveler away from Acela and onto a plane.

(Years ago, I had an uphill battle getting our corporate travel department to OK travel on Amtrak between Newark NJ and Wilmington DE / Stamford CT / Baltimore and DC. It was outside their usual bubble.)

THAT was well stated!

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bringing this kind of information into specialty
> publications like Business Traveler has a double
> impact in potentially discouraging higher fare
> travelers. Even though the article clearly says it
> is a test on just two lines, I could see a travel
> arranger deciding that it was all lines. And
> directing a traveler away from Acela and onto a
> plane.

Absolutely. Look at all the furor it is causing here. Amtrak has stated it is two trains that, by all accounts, already have very limited dining service due to trip length and schedule.

Posted from Android

The problem is that the steak that you're paying $25 for costs Amtrak $125 to prepare and serve.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/18 08:01 by reindeerflame.

Are you telling us they are only recovering 20% of all meal costs from F&B charges ?

Can we change the thread title? Upon seeing the title I thought Anderson pulled the trigger on the rest of the diners. Unfortunately at this point in time this is all “old news”.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> Are you telling us they are only recovering 20% of
> all meal costs from F&B charges ?


I believe Boardman said at the hamburger hearings the diners recovered 42% of their costs.

On Amtrak's website, I find it interesting to see a photo of a couple having a nice meal at a dining car table complete with flowers! I thought flowers had been long gone on Amtrak diners.

reindeerflame Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The problem is that the steak that you're paying
> $25 for costs Amtrak $125 to prepare and serve.

$5 of meat, $120 of labor?

Really?