"Gas station food?" I suppose that means the food sold in convenience stores where they also sell gasoline as a loss leader to get you to come in and buy the highly profitable coffee. (Someone in the business once told me that the revenue on the first cup of coffee pays for the entire cost of the whole urn.) In my neck of the woods, convenience store food is actually not too bad. I'm thinking the fried chicken at Royal Farms, the hoagies at Wawa, etc. They also have a pretty good selection of grab and go items to add variety. It's not gourmet food, but it does the job. I deliberately stop at some of these places for lunch, particularly to get the fried chicken or the hoagie. However, that really can't be replicated in a train cafe car. The number of customers in limited, if captive, and preparing stuff to order requires more staff than can be supported by the revenues generated. Last week I was at a Wawa to get a hoagie, they had three people working the kitchen area (plus 2 cashiers), and they couldn't keep up with the lunch rush, which didn't seem much longer than lines I've seen the cafe car. I waited a good bit longer than I usually do for a Wawa hoagie.
Forget about getting "fresh" "cooked to order" food on a train. It will all be prepackaged, but, of course, there are different levels of quality in prepackaged food, and let's hope Amtrak is finally willing to pay for a higher level of quality.
