It has been posted here that the CONO typically runs with a Sightseer Lounge and without a Diner or Diner/Lounge. Since those don't have convection ovens, the "Flex" menu on the CONO is the same as the cafe menu. You can see that for yourself:
I just assumed it was the schedule change after re-negotiations with the host railroad to improve OTP.
I arrived on Oct 6 from CHI & the SCA will bring food to your room or you can eat in the observation car-either way the cafe food is nuked & not good - grilled cheese was awful - angus burger was over nuked & bread roll was hard. I must say the staff was friendly, although sometimes it was hard to find our room attendant.
Just returned from round trip CHI-NOL on CONO and was surprised to see cafe menu was replaced with FLEX again and diner car was back. SCA said switch occurred 11/22/24. Hard to believe but food actually wasn’t bad, breakfast omelet was surprisingly good. I make this trip 1-2 times a year and the crew, which can be hit or miss, were exceptional. Now if Amtrak could just fix the tracks on this route, it can be a really, really rough ride at times.
Amtrak has nothing whatsoever to do with track maintenance on the CONO route. It is owned, dispatched, and maintained by CN.
Here is the flex menu from my Chicago to New Orleans trip. Dec 17 2024
Lisa was Dining Car attendant and gave excellent service. She really made my trip!
Thanks.
Would have been nice to have access to this information while on the train. I can see that we definitely blew through the fat RDA - food tasted great but it didn't sit well with me later. Good thing I had my cholesterol checked before the trip and not after
!, that’s a way different menu than what I had on CONO early October. At that time the highest recommended dish was the hot dog. I had the burger. There were no desserts. Does this mean there’s a dining car?
This issue goes back to Illinois Central days. I was a relatively regular rider between Memphis and Fulton KY in the early to mid 60's and rode the Amtrak version a couple times in the 70's north out of Jackson MS. During the 60's in particular the emphasis was being on time and speed limits could be regarded as suggestions where the engineer thought track condition permitted. They were among the last of the major railroad line in the US to go to welded rail, which both reduced maintenance effort and improved ride quality. When finances were tight the tendency was to cut back on track maintenance. Because they are paralleled end to end by the Mississippi River with its extensive barge traffic and the cost of maintenance of the waterway for navigation borne by the Federal Government they had to be very careful about expense on track maintenance. There were areas where the ride quality could be expressed as exciting or stay in your seat and hold on.
