Passenger Trains > Coach passengers in dining car?

Reported:

"...My brother is on the Coast Starlight LA to Portland, on leg one of his 10-day US Rail pass. He usually gets a roomette, but is doing a 10 leg trip for fun. He just called and said they made an announcement that as of today, the dining car is open to coach passengers. He brought a ton of food for his journey, and is just so excited to not have to eat it."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/23 23:23 by GenePoon.

That is great news if it is indeed true and continues......
SR2

As of the 2/27 Starlight departures, Coach passengers were not allowed to eat in the Diner. So, this would be a brand new change.

Posted from Android

It started 3/1 according to a number of posts elsewhere.

Started Wednesday (March 1). Applies to all western long distance trains with traditional dining - Empire Builder, California Zephyr, Southwest Chief, Sunset Limited, Coast Starlight.  Space available.  Flat rate: $20 breakfast, $25 lunch, $45 dinner. Includes free alcoholic beverage at dinner.

Not cheap, but I get it.  Certainly it would be nice to have Appleby prices.   Hope it works.

>  Includes free alcoholic beverage at dinner.

Fixed it:      Includes alcoholic beverage at dinner.

About where I would have expected the prices to land. 

How about The Texas Eagle ?

Not bad at all for prices.  Have you eaten out lately ?  Restaurant prices have risen considerable in the last couple of years.

I would cut them all down by $5 to be on par with Denny's and IHOP, which is basically the quality of the food. Take liquor out of dinner. Non-drinkers shouldn't have to subsidiize that. Many receptions have cash bars. 

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would cut them all down by $5 to be on par with
> Denny's and IHOP, which is basically the quality
> of the food. Take liquor out of dinner.
> Non-drinkers shouldn't have to subsidiize that.
> Many receptions have cash bars. 

Your description of Amtrak dining car meals was true pre-pandemic, but a trip on the Zephyr in January showed me how far the Amtrak dining car food has come. The meals were excellent - and I do not say that lightly, and did not expect it.  The former limp, utterly forgettable salads have been replaced by a choice of one ot three appetizers, and tasty ones. The generic baked potato and overcooked, tasteless  vegetables are now augmented by rice, grains. polenta, and properly-cooked sides. The food and presentation was above what I expected and beyond what would have sufficed as a return to traditional dining.  My wife and I regularly dine at Season's 52 and I would put today's traditional dining food on a par with that. So, in my opinion, the food, presentation and service is worth $45 + tip at dinner, and is a bargain for lunch and breakfast.

prr60 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Started Wednesday (March 1). Applies to all
> western long distance trains with traditional
> dining - Empire Builder, California Zephyr,
> Southwest Chief, Sunset Limited, Coast
> Starlight.  Space available.  Flat rate: $20
> breakfast, $25 lunch, $45 dinner. Includes free
> alcoholic beverage at dinner.

Does anybody know the reason behind not just running the DC À la carte for coach passengers? The fixed price menus are a significant increase over the pre-covid menues, especially if one didn't order top tier entrees. 

It feels like someone determined that the overhead is effectivly so high that it doesn't matter what one orders in terms of food and the DC cannot make up its costs in volume.  Therefore set a high cash price point, serve a smaller number of coach passengers and then be able to run the leanest possible staff.

Not even in Seasons 52 does chicken cost as much as fish. 
Sleeper passengers tended to order steak and fish because it was "free".
Coach passengers tended to go for the veggie/pasta or chicken. They tended to sell out first. 
It think their motive is to say "see, coach passengers don't want to eat in the diner". 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/23 10:59 by joemvcnj.

With dining car staff being paid a much more living wage than typical restaurant employees, how much should one tip the waiter in the diner?

wzd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> With dining car staff being paid a much more
> living wage than typical restaurant employees, how
> much should one tip the waiter in the diner?

Our rule-of-thumb was $5pp for breakfast and lunch and $10pp for dinner. Yes, they make a living wage, but I believe in karma. Pretty much background noise compared to the entire cost of the trip.

Hearing this change allowing coach passengers to eat in the dining car , I'll have to remove the cattle car from the consist of my HO gauge Amtrak passenger train . It's not a total  cattle car operation . 

UP951West Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hearing this change allowing coach passengers to
> eat in the dining car , I'll have to remove the
> cattle car from the consist of my HO gauge Amtrak
> passenger train . It's not a total  cattle car
> operation . 

And we all thought you had the cattle car in the consist to supply the fresh beef for those Flatiron stakes!

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> think their motive is to say "see, coach
> passengers don't want to eat in the diner". 

According to Chestler at the RPA webinar when this was talked about they had a positive response and a decent take with just business on the Starlight.

Latebeans Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not bad at all for prices.  Have you eaten out
> lately ?  Restaurant prices have risen
> considerable in the last couple of years.

Agreed.  I was at Denny's Del Mar, CA last month and my usual custom slam with coffee totaled $16+.  Add $5 for a tip and you're over $20.  A bit of an increase since my last Denny's a couple of years ago.  Here in Chile,  my usual Starbucks muffin and coffee of the day is now about US$8,  up from US$5 pre-covid.  Eggs here are up to $3.50/dozen.