Actually having McDonald's as a supplier of food for the Cafe's, Dinettes, and Bistro's is not such a bad idea. Get past the obvious joking part of it and consider these terms of mine:
- they offer a wider and more appealing selection than even a decade ago, for not so high a price
- since McDonald's is everywhere, you can not only more easily supply comissaries and rail yards with large quanties of perishables that will become breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all the corridor and medium distance trains, as well as lounge meals on the overnight runs, but also enables Amtrak to respond better to running out. If a train is significantly delayed, a local McDonald's can be tapped on a prearranged system to restock the train. Cardinal, or Pennsylvanian anyone?
- Amtrak's large presence as the nation's major intercity rail carrier means it can boost revenues for McDonald's, and in turn, get McDonald's to provide a higher quality selection on trains vs. what you'd normally find in it's fast food restaurants. Less, if any, burgers and fries, and more things like paninis and chicken salad roll-ups. Demand that McDonald's tone down their big yellow 'M' golden arches so that Amtrak's logo branding is the dominant presence.
- Diners on long distance trains are left alone, are not touched by McDonald's
By tapping into and harnessing the power of two large organizations, I seriously see win/win here. Amtrak can finally change it's mummified image, esp. on Northeast Regional cafe cars, in providing a more varied and easier accessable offering in it's cafe car menu's, be better prepared for emergencies that stop trains for hours at a time, or for when high demand exhausts on board supplies, and have tighter control over a greater stream of perishables to originating rail yards and terminals. McDonald's gets a significant new revenue source and a shot in the arm to their own image of supplying cheap fried heart attack food by being called upon to make more of some of their more recent entries and to develop more of them mainly for use on Amtrak trains. 30 million people a year ride us.
Another benefit not food related is that an alliance like this is a supernova of excellent publicity, and any 'green' initiatives that are coming down the pipeline will have a greater impact, be easier to impliment, and have a far reaching effect. For ex: if a method is adopted to replace the styrofoam trays and cups with something that's biodegradeable it will have far reaching effects that benefit the planet and will cause great praise and accolades for both McDonald's and Amtrak.
Let's talk.
