Dining on trains that are late.

[Usonian]

On July 3rd a friend and I will be taking our first long distance trip on Amtrak from San Jose CA to Seattle WA. We have a roomette, and would like to have dinner once we board. The departure time from San Jose is 8:23 PM. If one is required to board before 8:30 in order to get dinner but the train is late, will we miss out on dinner? It would not seem fair to miss a meal we paid for due to the train being late. Thoughts?

 

[Ryan]

It works the other way too - you get meals you paid for if the train is late and puts you into mealtime.

 

[Usonian]

The scheduled travel time is 24 hrs, 14 minutes, so it would have to be really late to pickup breakfast on the other end. I don't know if I should just eat before boarding.

 

[Dakota 400]

It works the other way too - you get meals you paid for if the train is late and puts you into mealtime.

Very true! When I was on the California Zephyr, it was running extremely late and we were able to enjoy another dinner in the diner!

 

[fairviewroad]

It works the other way too - you get meals you paid for if the train is late and puts you into mealtime.

In theory, yes. But if--like the OP--you're traveling from San Jose to Seattle on the Starlight, you won't have a shot at another meal unless

the train is horrendously late in which case your breakfast may turn out to be Dinty Moore beef stew.

 

[Usonian]

So, do I monitor the incoming train a few hours out to determine whether or not to eat first? Does anyone know if this train is typically late at this point in its run? (Not a fan of Dinty Moore Beef Stew :unsure: )

 

[fairviewroad]

So, do I monitor the incoming train a few hours out to determine whether or not to eat first? Does anyone know if this train is typically late at this point in its run? (Not a fan of Dinty Moore Beef Stew :unsure: )

If you go to this website you can enter train 14 for SJC and find that the average delay over the past 4 weeks is 37 minutes. However, the data set

is incomplete and if you remove the two days when the train was extremely late you'd find the average delay much less. And don't worry, you won't

miss out on getting dinner if you "miss" the deadline by 5 or 10 minutes. A good SCA will have made you a reservation in the dining car and it

shouldn't be an issue if you board at, say, 8:45. And since this is the Starlight, there's also the Pacific Parlour Car which may work as a sort of

back-up plan, though I don't have experience trying to get a meal there "after hours."

 

[Usonian]

Thank you for your input. Is there a way to alert the SCA that we hope to have dinner even if the train is delayed?

 

[yarrow]

Thank you for your input. Is there a way to alert the SCA that we hope to have dinner even if the train is delayed?

if your train is significantly late then the dining car and kitchen will be closed. the best you can do is ask the sca as you board if it's too late for dinner but it is the lsa in the diner that decides when meal service ends. in my experience we have usually been 20 or so minutes early into sjc but for a given trip it's impossible to say. we travel fairly often south from pdx. if the cs is on-time we get lunch. if it's a little late we don't. i do not look on it as missing a meal i have paid for. i might be a bit disappointed but the train missed the, in this case, lunch service window. that is the way it is when you board near the end of a meal period

 

[Zach]

This past October I was on one of the Silvers leaving SAV heading for DC and our train was late. They kept the diner open for us so we could have dinner. I think we boarded between 930 and 10pm.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

If the train is late and the Diner has already closed, you may be sent to the Cafe-Lounge and be allowed to bodge together a meal there.

 

[fillyjonk]

It depends a lot on the crew, I think, and HOW late the train is.

I once got on the TE a little after 9 pm (the diner closes at 9). The SCA sent me to the diner, saying. "No, it's okay, you should still be able to get dinner." I was - they were out of one or two things (I think this was the day it came in from LA), but the LSA stayed late to serve me. (Yes, I tipped accordingly).

I've also been on a train with a "bad ordered" diner and was told to go to the Cafe-Lounge, pick out what I wanted, and just show them my sleeper ticket. So that might also be a possibility.

 

[Guest]

Many options are available if you are traveling in a sleeper. In most cases all you need to do is ask.

In one case the train was so late the meal hour would be over. So I left

the station to get a meal. At the end of the trip I called Amtak and got

a $10 voucher.

In another it was a toss-up if the train would arrive in time for the meal.

The ticket agent contacted the train that several boarding wanted a meal.

It turned out the train arrived just after the cut-off time and still fed us.

Others in this thread mentioned going to the snack bar may be allowed. On one very late train and a missed meal, we asked and allowed to do this. You can order anything you want.

 

[chakk]

Both CZs are mega-hours late today in Nevada and Iowa, so all psgrs can expect a free dinner ginned up by the chef.

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