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We're back on our return trip on the CZ...and the roll is back! Here's the Lobster Crab Cake:

Now it's better than it was before COVID.

I hope that someone reached out with contact details for you. If not, social media seems to be the way to go!

I think a listing of all the equipment on board a Viewliner 2 diner is very on topic!

All rice or poached eggs require are the right water/vinegar mixture in the right ratio in a well-contained appliance. There's not much actual cooking skill required. Many restaurants poach eggs in a microwave. A lot of airline food cooking is just applying well-known pre-cooking and...

A high quality single use plastic. Everything about the new dining experience was very well thought-out, given the constraints. One of the things I hated about the old full-service dining on the CZ was how things appeared to be set up for the convenience of the OBS. For example, they would...

Neither do I, I hope they succeed in Florida and go on to build between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and many other places. I hope other real estate developers copy their idea throughout the country. Whether Brightline, development the Los Angeles Metro has done, or the High Line, developing...

I'm sorry to report the plates on the CZ were the plastic ones they used before. The silverware is nice higher grade restaurant quality. That being said, it's not terribly noticeable and doesn't detract much from the upgraded experience.

It appears they're moving to a prix-fixe model which makes the most sense. They can offer higher quality options, shift more of the cooking time to prep work and cut down on inventory, spoilage, storage, etc. The desserts, for example, appear to be slices off a larger common cake than the...

Assuming they.had sufficient staff, or kept the diner open longer, the voucher system also removes the need for the Dining Car staff to take reservations or worry about billing. The idea is not so much lack of capability to charge as much as offloading work, since as you say, the cars are...

Actually, it was Pullman. The entire pitch of the service was “luxury for the middle class” and the “height of luxury” for the wealthy. There is no premium charge to go from one place to another on Amtrak, either. However, driving on the highways in a Winnebago is definitely going to involve...

They got a lot of prime real estate to develop which bondholders found interesting. They just had to build a rail service in order to develop it. Also, at around 80 miles, it's a commuter rail service with intercity stop frequency. So--perhaps in that sense it's a new product. I still hold...

Here's where I'm conflicted. Rail transportation itself is the public service. If we're talking about sleeper accommodations, I'm not sure where they fit in the matter of Amtrak as a public service. If Amtrak finds a market for a premium service at what we consider to be extraordinarily high...

Acela is unique in that it's the first high(er) speed rail running over legacy track. Brightline is doing the same thing. While I applaud their efforts and give them credit for being a quasi-private entity building some new higher speed intercity rail, from the operational perspective it's not...

The current comes-with-everything kit for the UV-5R is under $50.

Owning the device is not illegal. You can program it to not transmit at all, which would make it a scanner. Transmitting on frequencies you're not licensed to transmit on is illegal.

Is Brightline somehow a new product? Looks kind a slightly glammed up commuter rail line.

I cannot recall a single time I've been on the internet where I've agreed so strongly with someone I've agreed to disagree with. This would be amazing and I am all for it.

Without Amtrak actively supporting it as an idea, I don't see how it could get off the ground. That being said, I've seen much less viable proposals get venture funding. The last actually new rail product in the US was the Acela. Does Amtrak actually do any feasibility studies into new...

Well, given how far out they do crew schedules, this makes a lot of sense. The cafe car attendant could just sell vouchers with specific reservation times. That handles the cash handling aspect of it. Presumably, the POS system could be upgraded for it--that may be easier than trying to have...