Passenger Trains > Great trip on Amtrak

This trip was a full circle from Indy.  We road 51 to Chi.  Then 7 to Spokane.  After three weeks with our Granddaughter and her family, we left on 27 for Portland.  From there to Sacramento. After four days in Sac, we left on #6 for Galesburg.  A bus took us on to Indy.  The on board service people were for the most part great.  All the sleeping car attendants were super, as were the dining car folks (except for train 6 on Nov 1-3--they were slow, unfriendly, lazy and kept getting our order wrong).  My only grip was the food.  i had a total of 5 flat iron steaks.  LOL  Something one gets tired of over time.  it would be nice if each train number had different meals.  The good news seems to be Pepsi is out and Coke will be in soon.  Our train was 5 hours late into Galesburg, IL and Amtrak took care of all of us.  We had a great designated bus to Indy and fixed connection for many folks.  The word was that soon meals on the long distance trains will be different soon.  They will not be fresh cooked, more box type.  Over all we had a great trip.  We are now up to 152,000 miles on the way to 200,000.  Just wanted to let folks know.

Thanks for the report. Glad you had a good trip. My wife and I are booked on 51 and then 27 to Portland in March. Wish we could do the circle trip as well, but will be flying home after attending Winterail.

Kim Heusel

Thanks for the recap. Re: The word was that soon meals on the long distance trains will be different soon.  They will not be fresh cooked, more box type. 

Can you speak a bit more to this? Assume it came from OBS. Did you hear this from multiple people/crews? Thanks, as I haven't heard this yet.

My wife recently had a successful round trip from California to New York City.  Leaving from Los Angeles on the Southwest Chief in late September we had an on time trip to Chicago in spite of a 20 minute freight train delay outside Chicago.  Sleeping car attendant good and dining car personnel gave us good service with meals well prepared.  The Lake Shore service also was good even with a 1-1/2 hour late arrival in NYC.  The sleeping car attendant was excellent and the meal service better than a year ago.  Returning in October on the Capitol service was very good and we arrived in Chicago one hour late - pretty good for this train.  From Chicago it was onward to LA on the Southwest Chief.  We were on time - ahead of schedule at many stops - and arrived in LA an hour early.  The sleeping car attendant was very good and the dining car crew was outstanding: very friendly and quick with the service.  We did miss the old version of railroad french toast, however.  We enjoyed business class from LA to Oakland on the Coast Starlight arriving in Oakland on time in spite of several red signials through the Paos Robles area.

ColdRainAndSnow Wrote:
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> Thanks for the recap. Re: The word was that soon
> meals on the long distance trains will be
> different soon.  They will not be fresh cooked,
> more box type. 
>
> Can you speak a bit more to this? Assume it came
> from OBS. Did you hear this from multiple
> people/crews? Thanks, as I haven't heard this yet.

I first heard this 2 years ago. The only thing we know for sure is there are changes coming. 

I cannot say more because they didn't know any more.  I was impressed with the new diner.  Half was seating for passenger meals, the other end was also tables, but more for crew it seemed.  Anyone know when the new diners were put into service.