Amtrak dining and cafe service

[Rasputin]

Boston section did get its second coach back recently.

The additional capacity merely serves to allow these trains to haul more victims.

 

[Cal]

I'm sure this has been asked somewhere, but when does the diner open on #3's last day? Getting off at Fullerton and would like to wake up early enough to enjoy breakfast

 

[zephyr17]

I'm sure this has been asked somewhere, but when does the diner open on #3's last day? Getting off at Fullerton and would like to wake up early enough to enjoy breakfast

Historically opened for seating at San Bernardino (5:42 am), seating stops at Riverside (6:05 am). Fullerton is at 6:54 am and it's a D stop, so if they get there early, they'll leave early.

Not sure if they're still waiting to get to Berdoo. I'd use 5:30 am as a guide. They should announce the breakfast times the evening before. Ask at dinner to be sure

If you were going to LA, I'd say chuck their breakfast and eat at Phillipes, but you aren't, so get packed up and hit the diner before 6.

 

[Sidney]

BC before Covid,I believe the Chief served a limited breakfast on the last morning into LA. Not sure what they are doing now. Agree on Phillipes breakfast. They open at 7 and give huge portions. Coffee is included in the price.

 

[Railspike]

I ALWAYS send an email to Amtrak after every trip. I notify them of either the "good" and/or "bad" experiences of the trip. There used to be a Manager of each train pre-COVID. Don't know about now. The Sunset Manager's office was in Union Station in LA. I didn't know there was a manager of each train until I heard from him due to a complaint that landed on his desk and he contacted me. Let them hear from you. They can't fix what they don't know.

 

[OBS]

I ALWAYS send an email to Amtrak after every trip. I notify them of either the "good" and/or "bad" experiences of the trip. There used to be a Manager of each train pre-COVID. Don't know about now. The Sunset Manager's office was in Union Station in LA. I didn't know there was a manager of each train until I heard from him due to a complaint that landed on his desk and he contacted me. Let them hear from you. They can't fix what they don't know.

Thanks for sending the emails! Yes, each train does still have a Manager.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Thanks for sending the emails! Yes, each train does still have a Manager.

And the Good ones ride their Trains regularly instead of riding their Desk!

 

[Cal]

Historically opened for seating at San Bernardino (5:42 am), seating stops at Riverside (6:05 am). Fullerton is at 6:54 am and it's a D stop, so if they get there early, they'll leave early.

Not sure if they're still waiting to get to Berdoo. I'd use 5:30 am as a guide. They should announce the breakfast times the evening before. Ask at dinner to be sure

Alright, thanks. It would be ideal for me if we were several hours late. I would be able to go to breakfast and see Cajon Pass in the daylight.

If you were going to LA, I'd say chuck their breakfast and eat at Phillipes, but you aren't, so get packed up and hit the diner before 6.

Agree on Phillipes breakfast. They open at 7 and give huge portions. Coffee is included in the price.

I don't travel long distance by Amtrak too much, and all my last trips have been with flex. So even if I was going to LA I'd rather eat in the diner and enjoy one last traditional dining breakfast. It will probably be quite some time before I get on one again. But thanks for the advice, might check out Phillipes if I'm in LA some time.

 

[Brian Battuello]

Wow. One hundred pages of Amtrak Dining. Almost makes me hungry enough to eat a flex meal.

 

[johann]

Presumably “Flex” comes from flexible, which means “susceptible of modification or adaptation” according to my dictionary.

Unfortunately after 100 pages of posts since the first one a mere six months ago, “modification or adaptation” continues to be restricted to the tight confines of the Flex Five quintet.

A genuine example of Flex embodied in just three choices, is choosing a way to get from BON to BOS – walk, über, T.

 

[jis]

Presumably “Flex” comes from flexible, which means “susceptible of modification or adaptation” according to my dictionary.

Unfortunately after 100 pages of posts since the first one a mere six months ago, “modification or adaptation” continues to be restricted to the tight confines of the Flex Five quintet.

Flexible Dining does not have anything to do with the flexibility of the menu. Indeed as you point out, the menu is as rigid as it can be. The Flexibility was supposed to be about time, but even that seems to have fallen by the wayside over time. So like many other Orwellian things the name literally interpreted is actually the exact opposite of reality. I am at least relieved that they have not tried to call it Haute Cuisine yet.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Flexible Dining does not have anything to do with the flexibility of the menu. Indeed as you point out, the menu is as rigid as it can be. The Flexibility was supposed to be about time, but even that seems to have fallen by the wayside over time. So like many other Orwellian things the name literally interpreted is actually the exact opposite of reality. I am at least relieved that they have not tried to call it Haute Cuisine yet.

Wonder what Amtraks Spin Doctors will call the New Traditional Dining when it's fully implemented on all LD Trains?

Gourmet Cuisine? Millennial Meals??

 

[danasgoodstuff]

Wonder what Amtraks Spin Doctors will call the New Traditional Dining when it's fully implemented on all LD Trains?

Gourmet Cuisine? Millennial Meals??

Rail-ly Good Food!

 

[Brian Battuello]

I still have indigestion from "contemporary cuisine".

 

[Rambling Robert]

By shear luck I made my way up two cars to the cafe on the LSL - just as it became unbelievably in demand due to a sold out coach section. Having starved myself on the DownEaster in the morning and no lunch, the pizza and burger was fun to eat for dinner - on a train. Fortunately there was table space.

. As I ate in the 1/2 cafe the line grew exponentially - up to 50. Going through the switches without warning isn’t fun to someone who once had to learn to walk again. If I attempted treturn to my seat was no way my food or drink was going to stay in the silly cardboard container

Does the train horn announce a code approaching a switch?

81 hour this trip for the most part was a great one. I was hoping to have food delivered to the train but chickened out. Having a great food experience in 2017 has sold other people to ty Amtrak. But in 2919 and 2021 meh.

CEOs make the decisions but the ultimate source of funding Amtraks operation in the taxpayer and railroad traveler.

To sum it up: community traditional dining and include Coach passengers.

 

[Cal]

Does the train horn announce a code approaching a switch?

AFAIK it does not

 

[Rambling Robert]

Oh good - I’ll just add that to my list of twenty some items that will make me a zillionaire! haha.

Thanks Cal.

I’m pretty sure that as a younger person Thomas Edison was ejected off a train by a conductor who twisted his ear making him tumble from the train. His resultant hearing loss had a relation to his inventiveness.

 

[Night Ranger]

Oh good - I’ll just add that to my list of twenty some items that will make me a zillionaire! haha.

Thanks Cal.

I’m pretty sure that as a younger person Thomas Edison was ejected off a train by a conductor who twisted his ear making him tumble from the train. His resultant hearing loss had a relation to his inventiveness.

Sounds as though we had the same history teacher.

As far as I know the story is true. He was a "candy butcher" who sold candy to passengers and was thrown off of a train by a conductor for moving too slowly. There is another story I read years ago that said he was sent him early in his school career because his teacher told his mother that he was "slow" and did not learn well. That was how he came to be a "candy butcher." Maybe candy was that era's equivalent of flex dining.

 

[zephyr17]

Wonder what Amtraks Spin Doctors will call the New Traditional Dining when it's fully implemented on all LD Trains?

Gourmet Cuisine? Millennial Meals??

Amtrak! Our meals aren't crap anymore!

 

[crescent-zephyr]

He was a "candy butcher" who sold candy to passengers and was thrown off of a train by a conductor for moving too slowly.

Thomas Edison was thrown off the train at Smith’s Creek Station in Michigan for setting a fire in the baggage car (a result of his experiments that he brought along with him).

Smiths Creek Station is at the Henry Ford Greenfield Village (adjacent to the Amtrak line) as well as Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory.

 

[me_little_me]

Wonder what Amtraks Spin Doctors will call the New Traditional Dining when it's fully implemented on all LD Trains?

Gourmet Cuisine? Millennial Meals??

They will claim that is what and how millennials like to eat. But we all know millennials want flex meals at any time of the day or night.

 

[Night Ranger]

Thomas Edison was thrown off the train at Smith’s Creek Station in Michigan for setting a fire in the baggage car (a result of his experiments that he brought along with him).

Smiths Creek Station is at the Henry Ford Greenfield Village (adjacent to the Amtrak line) as well as Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory.

THANKS for the correction. "Alternate facts" are for politicians only.

 

[user 14106]

By shear luck I made my way up two cars to the cafe on the LSL - just as it became unbelievably in demand due to a sold out coach section. Having starved myself on the DownEaster in the morning and no lunch, the pizza and burger was fun to eat for dinner - on a train. Fortunately there was table space.

. As I ate in the 1/2 cafe the line grew exponentially - up to 50. Going through the switches without warning isn’t fun to someone who once had to learn to walk again. If I attempted treturn to my seat was no way my food or drink was going to stay in the silly cardboard container

Does the train horn announce a code approaching a switch?

81 hour this trip for the most part was a great one. I was hoping to have food delivered to the train but chickened out. Having a great food experience in 2017 has sold other people to ty Amtrak. But in 2919 and 2021 meh.

CEOs make the decisions but the ultimate source of funding Amtraks operation in the taxpayer and railroad traveler.

To sum it up: community traditional dining and include Coach passengers.

How many Coach cars did your train have?

 

[Rambling Robert]

I was out of Boston and dont know. I waited only five minute for my stuff. I sat down to eat amongst those in an enormous line which moved slowly. No one commented on my choice. Raman noodles and pizza. [Amsterdam 7:45PM]. Amtrak has converted me to drink Sprite - taste okay warm - haha.

 

[Mailliw]

They will claim that is what and how millennials like to eat. But we all know millennials want flex meals at any time of the day or night.

That's we not true we! We actually want to eat organic avocado toast washed down with fair trade oatmilk lattes!