Passenger Trains > Internal Amtrak Eastern Diner Downgrade Details

You can view the internal Amtrak document setting forth the service cut backs in the diners on all eastern long hauls by going to the my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/carl.fowler.7355.

This is indeed universal "Fresh and Contemporary" (or as I prefer to brand it "New and Contemporary"--as nothing wrapped in plastic in a box is truly fresh). The "good news" is it appears they retain one staff person in the now Sleeper-lounge diners. The bad news is everything else!

Thanks to Jishnu Mukerji for finding the document!

At 0855, Gene Poon posted this info. 

Nothing on the dinner menu that is at all eatable. Yes I am picky. But it should be the customer's choice how they want their beef "brazed beef" prepared.  In my case, plain. I guess any Eastern train that requires a dinner meal is no longer an option. Sure you can get a normal cooked meal at the station before departure on some of the trains and bring doughnuts on board for breakfast....Cap. and Lake Shore come to mind. But having a meal in the dining car is one of the great experience of LD train travel and also kills time rather than being stuck in your room the entire trip. And normally there is interesting conversation where in some cases, life long friends have been made. Has anyone ever kept in touch with someone they met on an aircraft? Oh I forgot, Millennials don't like to speak to strangers. Sad.

Thanks for a look at the real info.   Tried looking up the layout of some of these cars, but all info on the web is old it seems.
Can anyone direct me to the car layouts for..
-Sleeper Lounge Viewliner car
-Cafe/Lounge amfleet split club
-Sleeper/lounge (Cross Country Cafe)  I guess this is a superliner car?

I didnt even know that the Sightseer cars had 2 varieties...the full sightseer car, and the sightseer lounge/cafe.

TIA for any info....
 

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nothing on the dinner menu that is at all eatable.
> Yes I am picky. But it should be the customer's
> choice how they want their beef "brazed beef"
> prepared.  In my case, plain. I guess any Eastern
> train that requires a dinner meal is no longer an
> option. Sure you can get a normal cooked meal at
> the station before departure on some of the trains
> and bring doughnuts on board for breakfast....Cap.
> and Lake Shore come to mind. But having a meal in
> the dining car is one of the great experience of
> LD train travel and also kills time rather than
> being stuck in your room the entire trip. And
> normally there is interesting conversation where
> in some cases, life long friends have been made.
> Has anyone ever kept in touch with someone they
> met on an aircraft? Oh I forgot, Millennials don't
> like to speak to strangers. Sad.

Sorry u'll be missing "the best part of the trip" for you.   But I guess "they" have all decided that the "dining experience" should jst be a part of the "rail-cruise" trains...which, so far, Richard has decided will be the CS, EB, and CZ.    Looks like the SWC might survive too, and who knows on the Sunset.  As I've said before, I really think these trains need to be run by cruise ppl.  Richard Anderson is not a cruise person, nor does he profess to be.

As for the east coast overnight trains...The emphasis is going to be on transportation, not experience.   Make it a convenient and relaxing way for a business person to get somewhere overnight, instead of the horrible experience of shleping to the airport to take a late flight to shlep to another hotel, to get a few hours of almost sleep, to get up ,  to be at a meeting in the  morning.   And in weather/ATC delays with the airlines, and its a nightmare that would make an overnight train look pretty good.... especially if one or both cities are served by train, but not by a nearby airport, or only by a small airport, where u have to fly in a cummuter plane first, lug your bags around, wait in the airport for the connecting flight, etc.

But the point is....Richard is trying to make these trains a viable transportation alternative, expecially for business ppl.  Not rail riding experience trains for retirees.
Richard Anderson has never had any interest in trying to build a company around the leisure market.

Now, I dont agree with everything he has done, not at all.   And I wish he would hand off the Land Cruise trains to someone else...a wholly different department at Amtrak...   but i understand what he is trying to do,  Its not destroy Amtrak.  Its make it viable transportation, outside the NEC, in addition to the NEC.

Im a boomer, but I dont use rail transportation as a social event. The only ppl I'd really like to meet, are ppl whom i have common and possibly beneficial business experience with.  I dont need a fresh cooked meal...just something edible.  Salads and sanwiches are fine.   
 

Where is it written that Amtrak should be used primarily for "business" travel purposes, and everyone else is a leisurely retiree that should stay home ? Richard Anderson did not write the Amtrak law, nor does he have the right to make Amtrak what he wants, and if he has little experience in other areas, he is unqualified for the job. 

​Traveling over 400 miles by train does not mean the same as "cruise", or can we say that about bus and auto trips over 400 miles ?  How is that someone traveling 704 miles New York to Charlotte is fine, but 696 miles from DC to South Bend is "land cruise" and the Capitol Ltd be run by cruise people ? Because Stephen Gardner as a Congressional staffer, wrote the PRIIA law and engraved 750 miles in granite ?  Who elected him King ?  

Business travel is subsidized through the tax code, so displacing "leisure" travel for "business" is hardly a fiscal conservative's argument.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/19 12:09 by joemvcnj.

Sometimes I'd be satisfied with a salad.  In April I got on the nb Silver Star in Fort Lauderdale just as it started its run - and they were sold out of salads.  There was nothing else comparable in the cafe car.  An on-board service manager from Hialeah was riding to Raleigh on that trip, and he was no help.  Says the train is stocked in New York and that's it.

I experienced the Comtemporary Dining on the Capitol Limited this past October.  Sorry, but I doubt if I'll ride the train again.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Where is it written that Amtrak should be used
> primarily for "business" travel purposes, and
> everyone else is a leisurely retiree that should
> stay home ? Richard Anderson did not write the
> Amtrak law, nor does he have the right to make
> Amtrak what he wants, and if he has little
> experience in other areas, he is unqualified for
> the job. 
>
> ​Traveling over 400 miles by train does not mean
> the same as "cruise", or can we say that about bus
> and auto trips over 400 miles ?  How is that
> someone traveling 704 miles New York to Charlotte
> is fine, but 696 miles from DC to South Bend is
> "land cruise" and the Capitol Ltd be run by cruise
> people ? Because Stephen Gardner as a
> Congressional staffer, wrote the PRIIA law and
> engraved 750 miles in granite ?  Who elected him
> King ?  
>
> Business travel is subsidized through the tax
> code, so displacing "leisure" travel for
> "business" is hardly a fiscal conservative's
> argument.

I'm not setting the agenda here....but the generally successful business model at the surviving airlines has been "Cater to Business travellers, and leisure travel is money at the margins."  The only airline that has been built on a leisure travel market is Southwest.  Then JetBlue, Frontier, and Spirit followed.  Jetblue and Frontier seem to be surviving, Spirit is charging extra "just to say hello, and for everything else", to make ends meet.  I would never travel on them.
Richard brings what he knows.  Ive always advocated that Amtk have a separate Land cruise department to run the LD experience trains.   Which trains should be for transportation, and which for leisure...someones gotta draw the line somewhere.  Personally, getting on a train at 5pm, overnighting, and getting off the next am isnt much of an experience anyway. 

pdt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> As for the east coast overnight trains...The
> emphasis is going to be on transportation, not
> experience...
>
> But the point is....Richard is trying to make
> these trains a viable transportation alternative,
> expecially for business ppl.  Not rail riding
> experience trains for retirees.
> Richard Anderson has never had any interest in
> trying to build a company around the leisure
> market.
>
>  


I agree. It's a sensible strategy.

Agree!

Ambient temperature meals. Wow that’s pretty insulting to all involved. I thought they were diligently retrofitting convection ovens  in all the parked V2 diners for new meal options.  I guess we can add that to the list of lies and skewed facts Anderson and at this point the RPA are spreading. 

 

Who thinks that 5 and 6, for example, are only used as a cruise? Wake up and take a ride. They're transportation. Period.

Some people just want to get some place. Others appreciate America and ride for pleasure. Amtrak's function is to serve the national network.

Or is everyone supposed to drive?

Posted from Android

On my recent return from California, using #6 and then changing to #48 in Chicago the night of August 1 was my first actual experience with "Contemporary Dining". Going west I went coach so escaped the "experience". I found it first-hand to be absolutely disgusting and most of it ended up in the garbage. If this new system is so wonderful why would Amtrak be trying to shield certain travel statistics as Railvt has reminded us in his recent thread of 08/07? 

Further in his same thread we were reminded of the actions of the Interstate Commerce Commission back in 1970 over railroads that were performing the same stunts happening now. 

Now it is 2019 and I'm sure that Anderson and his comrades feel quite confidant that most do not remember or care what happened years past ro what gave rise to Amtrak. They are bent on a certain agenda. However, is there any force or power today that is strong enough to stand up to Amtrak today or are we all helpless pawns to their dictates? I'm thankful at least for Senator Moran who is at least doing what is in his power to do.. Today we don't even seem to have a strong advocacy movement to call Amtrak up short. If this continues to be the case, and they become ever the more emboldened to do their own thing, the disease spreading to western states, we will be left to watch the eventual fallout. They appear to be an agency out-of-control and maybe they will strangle themselves with their own Northeast Corridor. 
 

PRSL-recall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Now it is 2019 and I'm sure that Anderson and his
> comrades feel quite confidant that most do not
> remember or care what happened years past ro what
> gave rise to Amtrak. They are bent on a certain
> agenda. However, is there any force or power today
> that is strong enough to stand up to Amtrak today...
>  



Comrades?

Do you see Russian hand in this too?

Duna Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Comrades?
>
> Do you see Russian hand in this too?

Да, товарищ, я вижу руку Путина

Dinner, brought to my Saint Petersburg - Moscow sleeper compartment at 23:15.

Zakuski, turkey sausage & potatoes, 2 rolls, juice. Hot tea and a big Alenka milk chocolate bar (not shown) were brought in 10 minutes after departure.

I wasn't really hungry for a full meal, but I didn't want to insult staff by refusing hospitality. There was a selection of two or three entrees. Was tasty. Saved the rolls & juice for the morning.

 

---

Looks like a fine meal for a cool Russian evening.

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nothing on the dinner menu that is at all eatable. Yes I am picky. But it should be the customer's choice how they want their beef "brazed beef" prepared.  In my case, plain. 

Are you able to make those types of choices on an airplane?  

stash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Who thinks that 5 and 6, for example, are only
> used as a cruise? Wake up and take a ride. They're
> transportation. Period.

Sure. But most of those folks could probably drive or fly, even those who live in rural areas.  Remember, most of rural America is NOT served by rail. The sky does not seem to be falling in those locations. 
>
> Some people just want to get some place. Others
> appreciate America and ride for pleasure. Amtrak's
> function is to serve the national network.
>
> Or is everyone supposed to drive?

Sad but true. When the last train leaves, when the last bus departs, you are stuck with driving, walking, or bike. 
>
> Posted from Android

abyler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Duna Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Comrades?
> >
> > Do you see Russian hand in this too?
>
> Да, товарищ, я вижу руку
> Путина

Exactly. If it was a Russian hand it would be Tovarish. Comrades is a British Left/Socialist/Communist thing, also used in other Anglophile countries.