Enhanced dining service on the Capitol Limited

[Henry Kisor]

I've just returned from a Chicago-Washington round trip on the Capitol Limited. My last trip had been in November, 2010, and I was delighted to see that Amtrak has added "enhanced dining service" (china and genuine napery instead of plastic and paper, plus an extra server and maybe food specialist) to the train. Does anyone know exactly when the change was made?

The cross-country cafe cars were gone, replaced by seemingly brand-new diners with the conventional table layouts. Probably recent CCC rebuilds.

 

[Blue Marble Travel]

Don't know when, but I made the trip in mid-December, and the "enhanced" service was already in place.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

It was there in Nov '11 also.

 

[Henry Kisor]

Thanks. I guess the change was made sometime in 2011.

I'm curious about the kitchen crew -- does the food service specialist wash the dishes as well as assist the chef, or is there a third crew member down in the galley for that purpose?

Am working on a piece for Trainweb, hence my questions.

 

[Trogdor]

The change was made Thanksgiving week, or shortly thereafter, in 2010. It was definitely in place by January 2011.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

My understanding is the dishes are washed at the termini

 

[greatcats]

My friend and I experienced the enhanced dining service leaving Washington on Nov. 14. I too noted the upgraded service and the crab cakes were delicious. A few weeks before I had been on the Canadian, which is a different breed of cat with a higher level of cuisine. ( It should be, for what they charge in fares! ) However, on all three LD trains I rode in November, Silver Star, Capitol, and Empire Builder, I was very pleased with the food service.

 

[Trogdor]

I've just returned from a Chicago-Washington round trip on the Capitol Limited. My last trip had been in November, 2010, and I was delighted to see that Amtrak has added "enhanced dining service" (china and genuine napery instead of plastic and paper, plus an extra server and maybe food specialist) to the train. Does anyone know exactly when the change was made?

The cross-country cafe cars were gone, replaced by seemingly brand-new diners with the conventional table layouts. Probably recent CCC rebuilds.

No diner-lounges (CCCs) have been rebuilt back into dining car layout. All the dining cars are still the same late 70s (Superliner I) or early 90s (Superliner II) equipment, but they have gone through refurbishing recently so the interiors look nicer.

Some of the diner-lounges have had their tables reconfigured to all four-seater booths, eliminating the crescent-shaped inward-facing seats that were unpopular with most folks. However, they retain the upper-level serving station that takes up a bunch of room.

 

[henry kisor]

Thanks, Trogdor. I was told by a retired high Amtrak official that the CCC cars were to be reconfigured into conventional diners, but I guess he meant when they went through the usual refurbishing. Maybe the upper-level serving stations will be redone at this time.

 

[Golden grrl]

The change was made Thanksgiving week, or shortly thereafter, in 2010. It was definitely in place by January 2011.

I rode WAS/CHI second week of Dec 2010-they already had the enhanced then. Was impressed. Also had a high performance SCA on that trip.

Just rode WAS/CHI on Feb 2-excellent service in diner, crabcakes quite good. SCA was less than adequate, but another passenger did tell me he (the SCA) was sick. However, he (the SCA) wasn't so ill that he couldn't laugh at the videos he was watching.

Rode again, CHI-WAS on Feb 12/13. SCA was adequate, but nothing special.

Not such great service in dining car. Had the same server for two meals. Dinner was passable, but only passable. Breakfast service was less than adequate. That was the fault of the server, not of the chef. And there were only 4 diners, including me and my partner, when the server seemed to think that texting and/or playing angry birds was more important than serving.

In my February round-the-country trip, I was surprised that the CL was noticeably poorer service than on my other segments [which included SWC, Surfliners, CS, Cascades, EB]. Had fantastic service [from every position in dining car] on eastbound EB-really hated to say goodbye to them. And every one of them had fewer than 5 years with Amtrak, so were fairly new to the positions. For all my long trip, the personnel at the meal seemed to make more impression on me than did the plastic-or-china presentation.

 

[Oldsmoboi]

My trip in December on the Cap had a new SCA in training on the car. It was her second time serving as an SCA. Knowing the routine, I helped her through the ordering process and left her a nice tip.

 

[OBS]

Thanks. I guess the change was made sometime in 2011.

I'm curious about the kitchen crew -- does the food service specialist wash the dishes as well as assist the chef, or is there a third crew member down in the galley for that purpose?

Am working on a piece for Trainweb, hence my questions.

There are only two in the kitchen; the food spec. does the dishes as well as assisting the chef.

 

[Henry Kisor]

Media Relations tells me that there are no plans to re-convert the CCC cars into conventional diners, that they have plenty of service life left in them. Sorry for suggesting that there were recent rebuilds.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

I've actually gotten to enjoying the modified CCCs on the Texas Eagle and my only complaint, although not major, is the curvature of the table leaves too large a gap if you are on the aisle.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I think it was made during the 2010 Fall schedule change. Nice to see improving dining standards.

If the food specialist is only an assistant, how does he qualify as a "specialist"?

 

[Donctor]

The change was made Thanksgiving week, or shortly thereafter, in 2010. It was definitely in place by January 2011.

I recall that it was running with a full diner by Thanksgiving. Notes I took indicate that it lost the diner/lounge at the same time it gained a fourth coach for the holiday.

According to some consists I have, it was using 37000-series cars as late as 11/21.