Food "deliveries..." Worth the risk?

[zephyr17]

Most stations don't have any kind of food service on site, at least throughout the west. There are a few, like the snack bar at Albuquerque (although it is known to be slow), a newsstand in San Jose, the gift shop/newsstand/snack bar at Portland, or the Burrito Lady in El Paso, but otherwise, there may be vending machines if you are very lucky. I seem to remember a coffee truck in Minot, too.

As to other options away from the station, leaving immediate trainside strikes me as a very bad idea, unless it is a known super-long stop, like Albuquerque if the train is on time or early.

The only delivery I'd consider is something relatively cheap with a minimal delivery charge, like pizza, where if there was a miss it would be no big deal.

I have seen crews order pizza to be delivered, and, memorably, in Salinas southbound one time, we were quite early and my SCA went and bought sandwiches for himself and some crew members at a sandwich shop they particularly liked. He was gone for about 15 minutes, IIRC.

As to bragging. Bragging about ordering food for delivery? Huh?

 

[Bob Dylan]

The Texas Eagle Crews often order Bar-B-Q from a Joint in Taylor and it is delivered to the Train during the Brief Station stop in Taylor.( not staffed)

I've never eaten them, but the Chicken Dinners that are delivered to the Empire Builder in Montana ( not sure @ what stop??) must be Co-ordinated between Amtrak and the place that delivers them since the Builders OTP is less than stellar.

 

[zephyr17]

The Texas Eagle Crews often order Bar-B-Q from a Joint in Taylor and it is delivered to the Train during the Brief Station stop in Taylor.( not staffed)

I've never eaten them, but the Chicken Dinners that are delivered to the Empire Builder in Montana ( not sure @ what stop??) must be Co-ordinated between Amtrak and the place that delivers them since the Builders OTP is less than stellar.

Havre, MT

 

[cpotisch]

The memory of a success will stay with you as you brag to friends what you did and they never did.

Seriously, how is having food delivered to a train brag-worthy? "You'll never believe what I pulled off on my trip. I ordered food to the train at a long station stop." That's not really the most riveting or impressive story to tell your friends.

 

[cpotisch]

How is the food delivered to the Empire Builder for the boxed meals on the Portland section?

If I'm Not Mistaken, the boxed dinners are loaded on the Sightseer lounge eastbound from Portland and the boxed breakfasts westbound are loaded during the stop in Spokane.

Correct.

 

[me_little_me]

What risk is there? A few dollars? The worst that can happen is they don't bring it in time. So you call them and tell them to give it to some homeless person in need of food. The second worst thing is you are late and they either gave up on you (you can call them if you know you're suddenly going to be late) or they bring it and it's cold and inedible. So you have to throw it out. It's not like it's the end of the world. Much ado about nothing. The downside is low. The memory of a success will stay with you as you brag to friends what you did and they never did.

Where I live food deliveries generally start around $20 with popular restaurants setting minimums closer to $50. That may be cheap compared to a $500 roomette but it's still a fair amount of money to risk throwing away on a lark. To the best of my knowledge none of the restaurants in my area hand food directly to homeless people. I think they even passed a law making it a criminal offense to do so. I personally believe it would be a great idea to post delivery successes in the form of logistical guidance, but having food delivered to a train seems like a silly thing to brag about.

OP used Denver as an example. Denver is about as homeless-friendly as Asheville and from my observations at both, the homeless are very happy.

Also, since Denver was the example, the old Union Station building has lots of restaurants both inside and around it. While one should have enough time to walk to one, order and get back to the train on time, methinks pre-ordering and delivery would be a snap.

And even more, minimums and prices per person are not $50 or more unless one wants fancy food in Denver. Union Depot was not my idea of a gourmet area and, while ice cream was more expensive than away from 16th St Mall, it wasn't that bad and neither was food prices when we ate in that area. Heck, even NY Penn Station has decent (deliverable) pizza within a block at cheap prices although security and crowds would make it more difficult than Denver.