Only 16 coach passengers per meal. I wonder how the dining car staff is going to choose which 16 if more than that want to.
Amtrak dining and cafe service
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I think it's good, for a starter. After they see how it goes with the current staffing and menu, they can evaluate ramping up.
Perhaps they should sell dining tickets in advance, when booking tickets.
Oh, wait ... we're talking about Arrow.
Devil's Advocate
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In the past it was first come first reserved but with today's shorter trains that's probably less of an issue and with every entree sold at the same price meals with a higher perceived value will likely be exhausted early leading to fewer coach diners later in the trip.
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kangforpres
Train Attendant
Just booked a roomette on the Capitol Limited in May. Pitt to SBN, the only meal service I will get is breakfast (unless it's horribly delayed) for you regulars what is the best Eastern train Flexible Breakfast item? The Pancakes or Omelet?
Thanks,
Paul
Thanks,
Paul
I definitely despise those reheated eggs amtrak uses both on sleepers and Acela, so I personally would go for pancakes. But, I'd also look for things like cereal and breakfast bars because they're usually better.
trimetbusfan
OBS Chief
Can confirm… just boarded #11 in Coach at Portland and was able to get seated for lunch service right before last call! Nice to have this option again!
The credit card reader was down at the moment which meant it was cash only. Others might want to keep that in mind if they want to garuntee a meal in the dining car..
The credit card reader was down at the moment which meant it was cash only. Others might want to keep that in mind if they want to garuntee a meal in the dining car..
The problem that I'll be watching for a month from now is whether they will let the rest of the coach passengers know when the meals are sold out. I've had multiple experiences since becoming a Lower Level customer with no one ever showing up to take lunch or dinner reservations. That leaves the passengers to guess what to do next.
I'm not an attorney, but from the beginning of the ADA I've seen organizations get in trouble with things like this. If passengers with mobility issues are left to negotiate with the coach attendants to shop for them at the cafe counter, while 16 Upper Level passengers head for the diner, someone will have a complaint.
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I personally find the omelete OK.
Winecliff Station
Service Attendant
I was actually surprised to find it was pretty decent.
Can you explain how they handle it? Do they have coach passengers go to the diner to make a reservation or do they come through?
trimetbusfan
OBS Chief
They will come thru the coaches about an hour or two before meal service begins and take resverstions. Then you would just go to the diner when they call out your reservation time.
If you are boarding after meal service has already started (which was the case for me) I just went into the dining car upon boarding and asked if there was still a possibility of eating lunch with them. Luckily the diner was pretty empty so they were able to seat and serve me. You are also normally allowed to get seated when they make the ‘last call’ regardless if you have a reservation or not.
That is how it used to work before coach passengers were banned. I don't think that system will work if they are limiting it to 16 coach passengers with the reintroduction of coach access. I'll wait for reports from the field on how they are doing it with the 16 coach passenger cap.
danasgoodstuff
OBS Chief
Could it be that the 16 coach passenger cap is the minimum max that they'd be able to take if the sleepers were full and everyone wanted their meals?
Who knows? But everything I've seen, including from the RPA, seems to indicate it is a hard cap. But who knows what the crews will actually do?
trimetbusfan
OBS Chief
Based on what I saw today,
I'm not sure how many coach pax took advantage of lunch between Seattle and Portland (since I wasn't on board for that stretch), but based on what I saw for the meals after, there weren't that many taking advantage of the dining car access today. When the LSA came walking through the coach for dinner reservations, I only saw him take one dinner reservation in my (nearly full) coach car.
So, I'm not sure if it's because this is still a 'new' thing (that even regular riders might not be used to yet) or because the LSA did not really 'upsell' passengers to come to dine with them - or maybe a little bit of both - but on this day it seemed to be underutilized. (AFAIK the LSA didn't even make an announcement that he was going to walk the train taking the reservations. He sort of just showed up). While dining today the conductor even mentioned she was surprised to see a coach passenger in the dining car when she lifted my ticket.
Definitely curious to see how this will play out in the long run as people become more aware of it...
mlanoue
Service Attendant
There may be a limited number of coach passengers opting for dining car meals if all they know is that it's $25 or $45 or whatever. Unless they look at a menu to see what the choices are, they'll just be thinking about the cost. A lot of people bring food, and won't bother to search for a menu on their phones. The cafe car is just easier, when it's available.
Still--I think it's great that coach passengers at least have the option to use the dining car if they want to.
Still--I think it's great that coach passengers at least have the option to use the dining car if they want to.
I just read where traditional dining has returned for coach passengers on a limited or shall we say space available basis. This is great! I have a trip coming up where we are coach on the return trip and I prefer to eat in the dining car. My question for everyone is do you think this will have a significant contribution to profit for Amtrak? I would imagine there is a greater profit turned off of this than the cafe purchases, but I could be wrong. What say ye? Traditional Dining Return Article
No Transportation Food Service makes a Profit, only Amtrak tried to make it a Profit/Loss thing thanks to the likes of Ex Congress Critter John Mica!
I should have worded that differently. I totally understand the lack of Amtrak profitability. The thought was more of will this make a significant impact in reducing the loss margin. It's certainly a plus to service/image and will make many people's experience better. I would think this would have a least a tiny impact on return business. As my mom would say, every little bit helps.
This whole thing is getting patently ridiculous. How does Amtrak expect to sell long distance coach tickets when there is nothing to eat, but snack food. This whole operation is looking more and more like a total snafu. Get the equipment properly maintained and get the staff trained and act like you are selling a product that people might like to buy. As to 12 coach seats in the Dining Car, what a way to start a riot. Come on folks.
Whether the return of potential dining car meals for coach passengers helps Amtrak's bottom line is, unfortunately, unknowable, probably even to Amtrak. It should help a little, given that the staffing is a sunk cost and I would presume that the raw materials are within a profit margin for the a la carte prices. But potentially the greatest contribution to the bottom line would be the repeat business of coach passengers who decide to book again, based on their experience in the dining car. How to calculate the size of that group is the problem. Likewise, some who booked sleeper space because the dining car was included in the fare may decide to go coach next time instead, which would be a minus to the bottom line. That group, too, is an unknowable number. Of course, Amtrak could just use gross ticket numbers before and after the change, but there are too many other factors involved--weather, economic disruptions, etc--to show that a correlation is actually a causation. So, it is certain that this change will have some kind of impact to Amtrak's bottom line, but it will not be easy to prove, either way.
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I’m glad to see some attempt to roll out real food to coach passengers. I think the meal pricing is fair as well.
It will be interesting to see how coach passengers react to pricing. More times than not, when we venture out of our sleeper to the cafe car, I hear coach passengers complaining about the cost of a microwave hotdog or cheeseburger.
It will be interesting to see how coach passengers react to pricing. More times than not, when we venture out of our sleeper to the cafe car, I hear coach passengers complaining about the cost of a microwave hotdog or cheeseburger.
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