Auto Train Cuts

[rrdude]

Their house brand quality is nonpareil.

Agree, it IS without equal, NOTHING is equally as poor or tasteless as Aldi house brand. If my last name were Aldi, I'd change it, rather than be associated with their slop.

 

[trainman74]

Their house brand quality is nonpareil.

Agree, it IS without equal, NOTHING is equally as poor or tasteless as Aldi house brand. If my last name were Aldi, I'd change it, rather than be associated with their slop.

Pretty sure GML was responding to the post directly above his, in which RyanS mentioned Wegmans.

I can't speak for Wegmans, but I grew up with Publix back when they were only in Florida, and their store-brand products were good. Now that I'm in Southern California and shop at Ralphs, I've found most Kroger store-brand products I've tried to be fine.

 

[neroden]

Wegmans store brand is extremely high quality, better than most name brands.

 

[FormerOBS]

jis:

Coach passengers who are able to go to the diner don't need meals at seats, and there are plenty of seats in the coach diner because they have the second car (used as a table car) for extra seats. The seating shortage is in the sleeper section. Meals at seats for disabled coach passengers have always been handled in the same way they would be handled on any other train. There is one person assigned to serve all meals at seats for disabled coach passengers. There is very rarely any extra help available for this coach attendant because all the other people who manned the coach doors at boarding time are working in the coach diner, so it sometimes happens that a lot of meals have to be served by this one employee. Hot meal trays are not given to the passengers to take to their seats because of the potential for spillage. Hot meal trays should always be carried by a person whose job it is to do so; not by a casual passenger who may not be accustomed to the task, the motion of the train, etc.

I realize passengers often carry their purchases by themselves from the lounge car to their seats on the Auto Train and on other trains. Some may think there is a contradiction here. But lounge car purchases are generally smaller, lighter, and not so likely to be extremely hot (coffee & tea being the exception). Carrying a loaded tray requires two hands. Also, lounge purchases are usually wrapped, so if a lounge car purchase is accidentally dropped it doesn't make so much of a mess. In short, employees are more likely to do it safely and efficiently than passengers are.

Until we got the Superliners in the 1990's, Auto Train had a buffet system. Passengers slid their trays along a tray line, picking up their salads, beverages, entrees, and desserts. At the end of the tray line, an EMPLOYEE picked up the tray and carried it to the table. Even in the days of the buffet, passengers were never required to carry their own tray.

 

[FormerOBS]

Wegman's stores are as big as small cities. Shopping in one requires way too much walking if you're shopping for a week's groceries. But I do like to go in and get a buffet lunch, or to buy one or two items that don't require too much walking. They have an incredible variety.

 

[priller]

Coach passengers who are able to go to the diner don't need meals at seats, and there are plenty of seats in the coach diner because they have the second car (used as a table car) for extra seats. The seating shortage is in the sleeper section.

Last Saturday morning, there was an announcement at 6:45a stating that the coach diners were full and asked that anybody who had not had breakfast stay seated until there was another announcement. Maybe just a rush or lack of a cafe/lounge being adjacent to serve as a holding area. Or, the additional coach passengers created by adding the additional coach car is a tipping point for what 2 diners can accommodate?

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Their house brand quality is nonpareil.

Agree, it IS without equal, NOTHING is equally as poor or tasteless as Aldi house brand. If my last name were Aldi, I'd change it, rather than be associated with their slop.

You must have tried the wrong items. Their house brand chocolate is a close second to Godiva as far as large brands go. Their tomato ketchup, which is high in both cinnamon and cardamom(!) is amazing. Their Dijon mustard, actually from Dijon, is spectacular. Their glass jar fruit preserves are scrumptious- pity they don't do marmalade. Their meat quality is better than anything you have here in jersey at up to twice the price. Their sparkling juices are AMAZING.

And yes, Wegmans is also good- comparable until you factor in price, really.

 

[FormerOBS]

The coach diner crew would have set up as many tables/seats as they could serve with the available crew. Once that many people are in there, there's no place else available to serve anybody else until some seats are vacated & tables cleaned & reset. With the lounge car not being adjacent to the coach diners, there is no place for people to stand except in the coach aisles. Most of the time, the peak demand is some time around 6:30 to 7:00 am in the coach diner, and some time around 7:00 am in the sleeper diner. Coach passengers tend to get up earlier. I think that's because the earliest risers start making noise and waking up their neighbors, so everybody is awake fairly soon after the diner opens. In the sleepers, early risers aren't so likely to awaken their neighbors. You said the coach diner was filled at 6:45, and that timing conforms exactly to the usual pattern. If the servers in the sleeper diner needed to make a similar announcement, it probably was made around 7:00 am. Additional seating was probably available around 7:00 in the coach diner, and all passengers were probably served by about 8:00 am in both coach and sleeper areas. I think you'll agree that breakfast time is very intense on that train. We spend all evening feeding people dinner; but breakfast for the same number of people is usually completed within the 6 am to 8 am time frame.

 

[William W.]

I fear that the eventual end result of these cuts, and those to follow, is the loss of included meals for sleeping car passengers (across all routes), or perhaps some items being included, and others being offered as an up charge. If this were to happen, without a corresponding reduction in ticket prices, I'd probably have to stop riding Amtrak. I know this sounds extreme, but if I remember correctly, there were a few members of Congress who attacked Amtrak for "giving away food" even though the price of the meals are included in the ticket price.

 

[neroden]

So, Fred Frailey pinpoints Tom Kirk as the source of the trouble on the Auto Train. (Not by name, but the deduction is unavoidable.) However, given the idiotic cuts on other trains (piles of garbage instead of using the automatic dishwashers installed in the kitchens), one really has to blame Mark Murphy. Murphy's background is entirely behind-the-scenes and I suspect he doesn't understand marketing at all; but then the same seems to be true of Kirk.

Maybe Moe Savoy, who handles most of Amtrak's long-distance trains which go to Chicago, or Mark Chandler, who handles the ones which go to Los Angeles, will be more understanding of the interests of customers.

Boardman noted in the June Amtrak Ink that the "customer service index" was dropping lately. No ****, Sherlock, you cut the quality of service.

 

[jis]

Of course in a typical large corporate bureaucracy (Notice I did not say government.... this is equally true in most large private sector outfits too) such falls in index would be blamed on the front line workers rather than on the brilliant management that could make no mistake unfortunately. The message will typically be to work harder and smarter etc. etc. and of course everyone will become more cynical and just ignore the bovine scatology and go on with life the best they can.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Does Murphys Law apply here? (Perhaps it could be Kirks Law when it comes to the Auto Train!)

 

[Paulus]

I'm not sure how useful that customer service index is; it's remained largely flat for decades. It is interesting to note that complaints and compliments, of all types, are predominantly regarding the long distance trains.

 

[Big Iron]

I'm not sure how useful that customer service index is; it's remained largely flat for decades. It is interesting to note that complaints and compliments, of all types, are predominantly regarding the long distance trains.

Where can this customer service index information be found? I'd be interested in looking at it.

 

[FormerOBS]

I'm not aware that Customer Service Index (C.S.I.) scores are made public. They are a gauge of service quality, based primarily on customer feedback. They were generally pretty high for years on the Auto Train. I haven't seen recent scores.

 

[Paulus]

I'm not aware that Customer Service Index (C.S.I.) scores are made public. They are a gauge of service quality, based primarily on customer feedback. They were generally pretty high for years on the Auto Train. I haven't seen recent scores.

National overall is reported in every monthly performance report as well as in the annual reports; the detailed Surfliner one is publicly available each month as part of the LOSSAN group agenda.

 

[jis]

Just had a very nice and relaxed dinner on the Auto Train. They have three sittings each two hours long. They are using half the upper level of the adjacent lounge car as overflow for Sleeper Diner patrons. Seems to work out nicely as far as dinner goes.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum

 

[Allypet]

Thanks jis. If it's no too much trouble can you post the consist?

 

[FormerOBS]

Jis:

Interesting. Are you traveling northbound or southbound? Do you know passenger counts? Did they have an extra waiter to work the lounge tables? This is something the OBS staff were told several months ago would never be provided, but mgmt. MAY have relented.

 

[Ryan]

From his comments on Bookface, s/b, 510. Hopefully he doesn't mind me passing that along.

 

[jis]

Ryan, no problem. I have no idea about the number of crew, who's serving what and what the exact consist is. I usually don't concern myself with those things. I am just concentrating on trying to finish a fascinating book on the geographical history of religion in India covering the last 5000 years.

The few things that I noticed in passing is that there are two Deluxe Sleepers - Palm Spring and Graham Claytor, and four regular sleepers, plus the Trans Dorm of course. I am in South Carolina (5345) and the adjacent car is North Dakota.

From the announcement earlier the car count is 15 passenger and service cars and 25 auto carriers. I have not been forward to the coach section so have no idea what is there.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum

 

[Allypet]

I'm on 53 right now. The AT consists of 6 sleepers and a sleeper diner, one lounge car (which had no seats) 4 coaches and 2 coach diners, and a crew sleeper. We have 482 passengers and 192 vehicles.

Sleepers had 4 dinning times, while coach has 3. I picked the 7:30 which was delayed about 10 minutes. Small bottles of water are still available as is coffee. Dinner was not bad. The dinner car crew worked hard. The were very busy to do 4 sittings, and they did a great job. The only draw back is I felt confined to my bedroom. I used to love to sit in the lounge car and talk to people. Every time I went to the lounge there were no seat. Much different then last year.

The best part is I got to meet FormerOBS at the station! He is a knowledgable AT crew member and his dedication is apparent. Amtrak lost a valuable member when he retired. Thanks for your service, you are sorely missed!

 

[FormerOBS]

Great to meet you! have a good (& safe) vacation!

 

[Allypet]

Breakfast had reduced choices of cereal and no bananas. There were several announcements that the diners for both coach and sleepers were closed due to overcrowding at different times. Plastic was used through out dinner and breakfast, but table covers were cloth.

I did see something interesting and maybe FormerOBS can shed some light on it. In Sanford there were 2 dining cars on the track when we pulled in. After they split the train it looked like they were moving items like table pads from the dining cars on our consist to these other 2 cars and they were making the tables in the new cars. Is this a common turnaround activity to have a fully stocked diner?

 

[OBS]

It sounds like the inbound diners were being replaced with the other diners. Thus everything has to be transferred.