Recent content by Tom C

The ham and Swiss on a pretzel roll one is decent especially if you have them heat it up. Not a huge fan of the turkey and cheddar one.

I have had far worse than flex meals. I think many people find the whole concept of it offensive knowing what food on trains can be which I get but they really aren't anywhere near as bad at least from my experience as many people make them out to be. And again - to me my most recent flex meal...

I recently took a trip to California where I took the Lake Shore Limited and Zephyr heading west and flew home on Alaska Airlines in first class back due to time constraints which prevented me from taking the train home and I got a pretty direct comparison. With the flex meals now plated on the...

Ehh I’ll take a reheated airline style meal over what’s basically microwave gas station food. To each their own I guess. I don’t think customer satisfaction index scores went up when it was just free cafe food either - otherwise they’d probably just do it on all the flex dining trains since it’s...

Pullman-Standard built the original Superliners - the last passenger cars that they built. Bombardier built the Superliner IIs.

Well at the end of the day that’s the whole point of Amtrak’s existence. If there were alternatives then Amtrak could be put out to pasture.

It’s not about COTS or refresh work. Viewliner refreshes haven’t even started yet. The bottom line is the Viewliner IIs have had significant reliability issues - full stop - and they can’t get certain parts in a timely manner. So the bad order shop counts on the cars are high. It’s not a...

They’re doing it early this year. April through early May is what I heard. Unfortunately I think one of the consists is down a sleeper at the moment due to the Viewliner shortages which is the reason for this downgrade. There’s a big issue with Viewliner shop counts at the moment.

Basically I think the idea behind keeping the T focused on transit in Boston and the surrounding area (yes as far as the cape and Worcester) and not involved in this is the differences in grant writing (at least from when MassDOT explained it). As a transit agency (including yes commuter rail)...

MassDOT made an executive decision that they are opposed to expanding the MBTA's jurisdiction beyond Metro Boston public transportation to include intercity rail services outside of the Metro Boston area so the T will have absolutely no involvement with east west service along either route...

Originally the Floridian third sleeper was to go on yesterday which is why there is a 10 car and a 12 car. They had to delay the addition of the third sleeper until April due to the Viewliner shop count so until then there is just a 10 and a 12. The driver of the current shop count is the lead...

redacted.

Not anymore. The CONO got a diner back in the consist when the Floridian started. It got the CCC cars from the Capitol Limited. It’s back to full flexible dining and with the return of the lounge car to the Eagle those two trains are basically equivalent now. I had the “plus” version of...

Good to know. The train is advertised as not having cafe service between Seattle and Spokane (when booking). Seems though a similar arrangement would suffice on 48/49.

I could see it happening if the state would have Amtrak put cafe cars on all the NYP - ALB Empire Service trains. Absent that I would highly doubt Amtrak would stage dedicated cafe cars just to cover that leg of 48/49 simply because it it's long distance train while the other NYP - ALB trains...