New Amtrak Food Contract

[Devil's Advocate]

ok i think if ya'll let me i'll jump in on this here horse

i am going to be on the texas eagle rt chicago -austin in 2 weeks i got a sleeper

so my meals are included, since u chow hounds know the food

what do ya'll recamend i order

Breakfast: Railroad Frozen Toast & McD's sausage patties

--Stay away from the bland watery omelets and horrible coffee--

Lunch: Meat & Rice Dish (Chicken Curry, Sausage Gumbo, etc.)

--Stay away from nearly EVERYTHING else, it's almost universally bad--

Dinner: Steak with BAKED potato (stay away from the powdered mash)

--Stay away from the pasta and/or seafood dishes--

Also, could you please use correct punctuation and grammar from here on out?

If you're looking for the chat room it can be found at http://irc.amtraktrains.com.

Thanks!

 

[Bob Dylan]

Overall I agree with the comments about the lack of Quality on Most of the Food served @ Prices that are approaching a Good Quality Resturant Meal! I personally think that the Breakfasts are the Best Meal for the Money served in the Diners, and think that most of the Deserts are Very Good!! The Special Sandwich is my favorite @ Lunch (the Veggie Burger is pretty tasty also!)but the Vegetarian Options are really Bad! And as has been said, the Mixed Veggies should be called Mystery Mush! Most of us agree that the Food IS getting better than it was in the Old Days, but there is still Lots of Room for Improvement! When I ride Coach I usually eat Breakfast and Lunch in the Diner, and pass on Dinner due to the Prices charged for what is Less than Dennys Quality! :help:

 

[TVRM610]

Judging food service "by train" is really rather silly. I think it has more to do with the commissary/ crew base more than anything. For instance, I've had most of my bad meals on the Capitol, which I believe is staffed out of Chicago. The Crescent and Lake Shore, have always been "very good" and I believe they are staffed out of New York.

The best food I've had recently was on the City of New Orleans last year. I'm almost positive the commissary is out of New Orleans.

Sad to say I havent ridden any western LD trains in many years, so I can't comment on them.

 

[RRUserious]

On my most recent trip, had no complaints about any food served. Every meal was a treat for me.

 

[JayPea]

For the most part, I don't find Amtrak food that bad. True, the side veggies are bland and tasteless, which is probably just as well, because I don't care that much for their veggie options. I do wish their salads were more substantial and I miss the fresh fruit option for desserts. And I don't do powdered mashed potatoes under any circumstance, Amtrak or otherwise. I think this was because my grandmother used to mash her own potatoes and add so much butter and milk, Jack Sprat would have gained weight eating her mashed potatoes. :lol: I think Grandma spoiled me when it came to mashed potatoes.

And I find the Angus burger to be better all the time. After so many complaints on here about them, I've tried to find things wrong with them but can't. Amtrak meals are pricey, for sure. I'm not much for steak, so on the rare occasions I have dinner while riding coach, I choose the less expensive seafood option, which I've always found to be good. The only truly bad meals I've had were the gumbo while on the CONO (truly ghastly) and a hot turkey sandwich on the EB that was stone cold. I like their breakfasts. I do choose the omelette and have always liked them.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

Dining Car food has always been extremely high priced relevant to the times; in OCT 1969 a Steak and Egg Breakfast on the California Zephyr was a whopping $2.75. A few years earlier, Coach passengers on the same train could enjoy Chef's Early Dinner in the Diner (1 seating only) where $1.25 put an entree, potato, vegetable, bread, beverage and dessert on the table.

With this trend in mind, I really do not grouse at Amtrak pricing and I find the food to be quite enjoyable.

 

[OBS]

Judging food service "by train" is really rather silly. I think it has more to do with the commissary/ crew base more than anything. For instance, I've had most of my bad meals on the Capitol, which I believe is staffed out of Chicago. The Crescent and Lake Shore, have always been "very good" and I believe they are staffed out of New York.

The best food I've had recently was on the City of New Orleans last year. I'm almost positive the commissary is out of New Orleans.

Sad to say I havent ridden any western LD trains in many years, so I can't comment on them.

FWIW, the Capitol is staffed out of Wash. DC

 

[white rabbitt]

:there are alot of chowhounds on this board :hi: :lol:

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I enjoyed all my meals on the CL and CZ last November.

I had scrambled eggs, bacon & hash browns for breakfast every morning. Crab Cakes 2 nights and Steak one night. My daughter had the crab cakes all 3 nights. Only the last night were they not quite as good (texture-wise mostly). We enjoyed the mashed potatoes. As I recall, they were garlic mashed potatoes. Lunch (hamburger for me, ?meatloaf? for my daughter) on the CZ may not have been as good as the other meals, but wasn't bad.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Not all of us speak or write well as "you perfect writers" - so lets give others a little slack! After all, you could read and understand it - otherwise you could not have answered the question, right?

Quite true. However, I don't think anybody is expecting anything close to perfection. If they were then they'd be criticizing nearly every post on the forum, including my own. Mistakes are easily overlooked or forgiven with a simple acknowledgement, but intentional butchering is a whole other ballgame. To me anyway. Hope that makes sense. ^_^

 

[pennyk]

ok i think if ya'll let me i'll jump in on this here horse

i am going to be on the texas eagle rt chicago -austin in 2 weeks i got a sleeper

so my meals are included, since u chow hounds know the food

what do ya'll recamend i order

--Stay away from the bland watery omelets and horrible coffee--

I like the omelets!! and.... I really like the chocolate desserts. :wub:

 

[TVRM610]

FWIW, the Capitol is staffed out of Wash. DC

Oh interesting! Do you know where the Silvers are based out of? Miami?

 

[Donctor]

FWIW, the Capitol is staffed out of Wash. DC

Oh interesting! Do you know where the Silvers are based out of? Miami?

Yes.

 

[Colonel Klink]

Dining Car food has always been extremely high priced relevant to the times; in OCT 1969 a Steak and Egg Breakfast on the California Zephyr was a whopping $2.75. A few years earlier, Coach passengers on the same train could enjoy Chef's Early Dinner in the Diner (1 seating only) where $1.25 put an entree, potato, vegetable, bread, beverage and dessert on the table.

With this trend in mind, I really do not grouse at Amtrak pricing and I find the food to be quite enjoyable.

Yes, but the food on those trains wasn't TV dinner/instant-style food heated in a microwave by a short order cook and served on a disposable plastic plate. If the quality of the food were at least comparable to Amtrak's standards from 15 years ago, your argument would have some merit. If you adjust for the differences in quality and service, I'd say that the food nowadays costs at least twice as much as it did back in the "golden days", adjusted for inflation.

As to the people who are saying that Amtrak food is similar to that offered at Denny's, I'd have to disagree. Denny's at least serves your food on real porcelain plates and your drinks in glasses made out of glass! Also, Denny's is capable of making toast. (A novel concept, I know!)

Seriously, I had a better breakfast and dinner on two recent North American business/first-class flights with American Airlines than I did on a recent train trip on Silver Service. The food was actually marginally better on AA -- the salad was nicer and the breakfast bread was a bagel that didn't fall apart (as my convection oven-heated slice of bread did). Also on AA I got free alcohol and the breakfast omelette meal didn't take 35 minutes to prepare as it did on the train. Of course, I also was served using real plates, cups, and glasses instead of disposable plastic.

Now when you compare the business class food on Air Canada's North American flights, there's no way Amtrak* (or any US-based carrier for that matter, airline or otherwise) can even come close. The meals they serve in the "Bistro" cars on Deutsche Bahn (which use only two to three employees) are better than Amtrak, and their actual full "Restaurant" cars that are on longer high-speed trains, night trains, and select conventional-speed intercity trains are even better than that. (Amtrak doesn't even have a sit-down option on Acela, and they don't serve you real food on real dishes or your beer in a real glass in the food service car.)

*Auto Train is a whole different ball game and is not included in these comparisons.

 

[johnny.menhennet]

Dining Car food has always been extremely high priced relevant to the times; in OCT 1969 a Steak and Egg Breakfast on the California Zephyr was a whopping $2.75. A few years earlier, Coach passengers on the same train could enjoy Chef's Early Dinner in the Diner (1 seating only) where $1.25 put an entree, potato, vegetable, bread, beverage and dessert on the table.

With this trend in mind, I really do not grouse at Amtrak pricing and I find the food to be quite enjoyable.

Yes, but the food on those trains wasn't TV dinner/instant-style food heated in a microwave by a short order cook and served on a disposable plastic plate. If the quality of the food were at least comparable to Amtrak's standards from 15 years ago, your argument would have some merit. If you adjust for the differences in quality and service, I'd say that the food nowadays costs at least twice as much as it did back in the "golden days", adjusted for inflation.

As to the people who are saying that Amtrak food is similar to that offered at Denny's, I'd have to disagree. Denny's at least serves your food on real porcelain plates and your drinks in glasses made out of glass! Also, Denny's is capable of making toast. (A novel concept, I know!)

Seriously, I had a better breakfast and dinner on two recent North American business/first-class flights with American Airlines than I did on a recent train trip on Silver Service. The food was actually marginally better on AA -- the salad was nicer and the breakfast bread was a bagel that didn't fall apart (as my convection oven-heated slice of bread did). Also on AA I got free alcohol and the breakfast omelette meal didn't take 35 minutes to prepare as it did on the train. Of course, I also was served using real plates, cups, and glasses instead of disposable plastic.

Now when you compare the business class food on Air Canada's North American flights, there's no way Amtrak* (or any US-based carrier for that matter, airline or otherwise) can even come close. The meals they serve in the "Bistro" cars on Deutsche Bahn (which use only two to three employees) are better than Amtrak, and their actual full "Restaurant" cars that are on longer high-speed trains, night trains, and select conventional-speed intercity trains are even better than that. (Amtrak doesn't even have a sit-down option on Acela, and they don't serve you real food on real dishes or your beer in a real glass in the food service car.)

*Auto Train is a whole different ball game and is not included in these comparisons.

I do agree that Air Canada meals are great!!! First class LAX-Vancouver this summer taught me.

 

[Larry H.]

Just to defend some rather "fast food" type restaurants as a thought starter for why that grade of food couldn't be served on Amtrak I would mention that we eat at Applebee's quite regularly and they turn out consistently good food and much of it is prepared part way and finished at the individual locations. They use mostly young people as cooks but have a supervisor that watches to control quality. It the lack of quality control about some diners that is a problem plus of course congress cutting the staff to points almost no one can claim to be wise. As mentioned Denny's is another that is mostly prepared and later finished before serving but the quality of many things in that chain are not up to the level I personally would recommend. Things they do locally like pancakes and other breakfast menus can be rather good however. I was surprised when I first started to eat at our local one and the waitress told me they couldn't vary the rareness of the steak because they came pre grilled.

Larry

 

[rrdude]

The CRYING SHAME of it all, that is, "less than stellar Amtrak meals in the diner", is that Amtrak has all of the RESOURCES, a la "Great kitchens with pretty decent equipment" in the Superliner diners.

They have CIA-trained chefs too, But.............They continue to put out Sub-Par meals. Canned veggies, powdered mashed potatoes (I don't know this for a fact, am assuming other posters are accurate) Removal of toasters, removal of "eggs cooked to order". The true chefs must be crying, knowing what the staff that are assigned to the trains are FORCED to put out.

The even bigger CRYING SHAME, is that younger riders, first time riders, and others think this food is "good" or "great". It's not. At best it's adequate.

Now, every crew is different, and some, I say "some", chefs/food service specialist, work hard to put out as tasty-as-possible food, but their hands are really tied. That's just wrong.

Did I have good Beef Tournados (sp) on both North and South Auto Train trips? You bet, the beef was cooked rare to my liking. It's almost impossible to screw up a baked potato, but the veggies, salad (if you want to call lettuce and one cherry tomato a "salad") don't just cut it. The real crime too, is that the additional expense to "do it right", is so little, not even noticeable if you ask me.

And don't get me started on Amtrak's so called "recycling program". What a sham. Better than nothing?

Hardly. All that plastic-ware that is used in the diner, and then gets thrown out? How some people sleep at night is beyond me..................... It garners Amtrak a lot of PR and goodwill, but it's mostly marketing hyperbole. All talk, VERY LITTLE actionable recycling.

 

[leemell]

The CRYING SHAME of it all, that is, "less than stellar Amtrak meals in the diner", is that Amtrak has all of the RESOURCES, a la "Great kitchens with pretty decent equipment" in the Superliner diners.

They have CIA-trained chefs too, But.............They continue to put out Sub-Par meals. Canned veggies, powdered mashed potatoes (I don't know this for a fact, am assuming other posters are accurate) Removal of toasters, removal of "eggs cooked to order". The true chefs must be crying, knowing what the staff that are assigned to the trains are FORCED to put out.

The even bigger CRYING SHAME, is that younger riders, first time riders, and others think this food is "good" or "great". It's not. At best it's adequate.

Now, every crew is different, and some, I say "some", chefs/food service specialist, work hard to put out as tasty-as-possible food, but their hands are really tied. That's just wrong.

Did I have good Beef Tournados (sp) on both North and South Auto Train trips? You bet, the beef was cooked rare to my liking. It's almost impossible to screw up a baked potato, but the veggies, salad (if you want to call lettuce and one cherry tomato a "salad") don't just cut it. The real crime too, is that the additional expense to "do it right", is so little, not even noticeable if you ask me.

And don't get me started on Amtrak's so called "recycling program". What a sham. Better than nothing?

Hardly. All that plastic-ware that is used in the diner, and then gets thrown out? How some people sleep at night is beyond me..................... It garners Amtrak a lot of PR and goodwill, but it's mostly marketing hyperbole. All talk, VERY LITTLE actionable recycling.

Are the plastic and paper goods that are recycleable, recycled or thrown out? Not guesses or assumptions, real information please.

Thanks

 

[OBS]

The CRYING SHAME of it all, that is, "less than stellar Amtrak meals in the diner", is that Amtrak has all of the RESOURCES, a la "Great kitchens with pretty decent equipment" in the Superliner diners.

They have CIA-trained chefs too, But.............They continue to put out Sub-Par meals. Canned veggies, powdered mashed potatoes (I don't know this for a fact, am assuming other posters are accurate) Removal of toasters, removal of "eggs cooked to order". The true chefs must be crying, knowing what the staff that are assigned to the trains are FORCED to put out.

The even bigger CRYING SHAME, is that younger riders, first time riders, and others think this food is "good" or "great". It's not. At best it's adequate.

Now, every crew is different, and some, I say "some", chefs/food service specialist, work hard to put out as tasty-as-possible food, but their hands are really tied. That's just wrong.

Did I have good Beef Tournados (sp) on both North and South Auto Train trips? You bet, the beef was cooked rare to my liking. It's almost impossible to screw up a baked potato, but the veggies, salad (if you want to call lettuce and one cherry tomato a "salad") don't just cut it. The real crime too, is that the additional expense to "do it right", is so little, not even noticeable if you ask me.

And don't get me started on Amtrak's so called "recycling program". What a sham. Better than nothing?

Hardly. All that plastic-ware that is used in the diner, and then gets thrown out? How some people sleep at night is beyond me..................... It garners Amtrak a lot of PR and goodwill, but it's mostly marketing hyperbole. All talk, VERY LITTLE actionable recycling.

Are the plastic and paper goods that are recycleable, recycled or thrown out? Not guesses or assumptions, real information please.

Thanks

Trash can.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I'm not surprised they trash most of that stuff. Maybe Amtrak should try something like the airlines, some of which allow the staff to benefit from any financial recovery from the materials. Although I'm not sure that would be much of an incentive if Amtrak staff make substantially more money than most airline staff do, which is my understanding.

 

[EB_OBS]

The CRYING SHAME of it all, that is, "less than stellar Amtrak meals in the diner", is that Amtrak has all of the RESOURCES, a la "Great kitchens with pretty decent equipment" in the Superliner diners.

They have CIA-trained chefs too, But.............They continue to put out Sub-Par meals. Canned veggies, powdered mashed potatoes (I don't know this for a fact, am assuming other posters are accurate) Removal of toasters, removal of "eggs cooked to order". The true chefs must be crying, knowing what the staff that are assigned to the trains are FORCED to put out.

The even bigger CRYING SHAME, is that younger riders, first time riders, and others think this food is "good" or "great". It's not. At best it's adequate.

Now, every crew is different, and some, I say "some", chefs/food service specialist, work hard to put out as tasty-as-possible food, but their hands are really tied. That's just wrong.

Did I have good Beef Tournados (sp) on both North and South Auto Train trips? You bet, the beef was cooked rare to my liking. It's almost impossible to screw up a baked potato, but the veggies, salad (if you want to call lettuce and one cherry tomato a "salad") don't just cut it. The real crime too, is that the additional expense to "do it right", is so little, not even noticeable if you ask me.

And don't get me started on Amtrak's so called "recycling program". What a sham. Better than nothing?

Hardly. All that plastic-ware that is used in the diner, and then gets thrown out? How some people sleep at night is beyond me..................... It garners Amtrak a lot of PR and goodwill, but it's mostly marketing hyperbole. All talk, VERY LITTLE actionable recycling.

Are the plastic and paper goods that are recycleable, recycled or thrown out? Not guesses or assumptions, real information please.

Thanks

Trash can.

Wrong!

Amtrak set up new contracts with garbage vendors in the last few years in order to deal with the recycling programs on-board. You'll notice that the recycle bins have either transparent clear or blue colored plastic liners. Both garbage and recycle bags are put off together at trash stops. After that it's in the vendors hands and materials in the special liners are intended for recycle processing.

If you are seeing regular black garbage liners in containers that are labeled for recycling then either Material Control was out of the correct bags or the cleaners or OBS employees put the wrong bag in the container.

Amtrak is attempting to recycle what it can. It's obviously not perfect. Additionally, it's my understanding that quite a few trains have already gone back to using china/glassware dishes and that most the trains should be eventually. Just FYI, some recyclers will not and/or do not want plastic or other recyclable material with foodstuffs on them. For example, in some areas you cannot even recycle a pizza box. I've noticed lately that some pizza vendors are putting the pizza on a sheet of wax paper in the box. This keeps the cardboard clean so that it can be recycled.

I can assure you, from what I've read and witnessed, Mr. Boardman is serious about Amtrak's recycling program. If you witness any shortcomings, feel free to contact customer service with your concerns.

 

[OBS]

The CRYING SHAME of it all, that is, "less than stellar Amtrak meals in the diner", is that Amtrak has all of the RESOURCES, a la "Great kitchens with pretty decent equipment" in the Superliner diners.

They have CIA-trained chefs too, But.............They continue to put out Sub-Par meals. Canned veggies, powdered mashed potatoes (I don't know this for a fact, am assuming other posters are accurate) Removal of toasters, removal of "eggs cooked to order". The true chefs must be crying, knowing what the staff that are assigned to the trains are FORCED to put out.

The even bigger CRYING SHAME, is that younger riders, first time riders, and others think this food is "good" or "great". It's not. At best it's adequate.

Now, every crew is different, and some, I say "some", chefs/food service specialist, work hard to put out as tasty-as-possible food, but their hands are really tied. That's just wrong.

Did I have good Beef Tournados (sp) on both North and South Auto Train trips? You bet, the beef was cooked rare to my liking. It's almost impossible to screw up a baked potato, but the veggies, salad (if you want to call lettuce and one cherry tomato a "salad") don't just cut it. The real crime too, is that the additional expense to "do it right", is so little, not even noticeable if you ask me.

And don't get me started on Amtrak's so called "recycling program". What a sham. Better than nothing?

Hardly. All that plastic-ware that is used in the diner, and then gets thrown out? How some people sleep at night is beyond me..................... It garners Amtrak a lot of PR and goodwill, but it's mostly marketing hyperbole. All talk, VERY LITTLE actionable recycling.

Are the plastic and paper goods that are recycleable, recycled or thrown out? Not guesses or assumptions, real information please.

Thanks

Trash can.

Wrong!

Amtrak set up new contracts with garbage vendors in the last few years in order to deal with the recycling programs on-board. You'll notice that the recycle bins have either transparent clear or blue colored plastic liners. Both garbage and recycle bags are put off together at trash stops. After that it's in the vendors hands and materials in the special liners are intended for recycle processing.

If you are seeing regular black garbage liners in containers that are labeled for recycling then either Material Control was out of the correct bags or the cleaners or OBS employees put the wrong bag in the container.

Amtrak is attempting to recycle what it can. It's obviously not perfect. Additionally, it's my understanding that quite a few trains have already gone back to using china/glassware dishes and that most the trains should be eventually. Just FYI, some recyclers will not and/or do not want plastic or other recyclable material with foodstuffs on them. For example, in some areas you cannot even recycle a pizza box. I've noticed lately that some pizza vendors are putting the pizza on a sheet of wax paper in the box. This keeps the cardboard clean so that it can be recycled.

I can assure you, from what I've read and witnessed, Mr. Boardman is serious about Amtrak's recycling program. If you witness any shortcomings, feel free to contact customer service with your concerns.

I do appreciate what you are saying, but my experience on the East coast tends to be a lot closer to my answer than yours...FWIW

 

[EMDF9A]

The CRYING SHAME of it all, that is, "less than stellar Amtrak meals in the diner", is that Amtrak has all of the RESOURCES, a la "Great kitchens with pretty decent equipment" in the Superliner diners.

They have CIA-trained chefs too, But.............They continue to put out Sub-Par meals. Canned veggies, powdered mashed potatoes (I don't know this for a fact, am assuming other posters are accurate) Removal of toasters, removal of "eggs cooked to order". The true chefs must be crying, knowing what the staff that are assigned to the trains are FORCED to put out.

The even bigger CRYING SHAME, is that younger riders, first time riders, and others think this food is "good" or "great". It's not. At best it's adequate.

Now, every crew is different, and some, I say "some", chefs/food service specialist, work hard to put out as tasty-as-possible food, but their hands are really tied. That's just wrong.

Did I have good Beef Tournados (sp) on both North and South Auto Train trips? You bet, the beef was cooked rare to my liking. It's almost impossible to screw up a baked potato, but the veggies, salad (if you want to call lettuce and one cherry tomato a "salad") don't just cut it. The real crime too, is that the additional expense to "do it right", is so little, not even noticeable if you ask me.

And don't get me started on Amtrak's so called "recycling program". What a sham. Better than nothing?

Hardly. All that plastic-ware that is used in the diner, and then gets thrown out? How some people sleep at night is beyond me..................... It garners Amtrak a lot of PR and goodwill, but it's mostly marketing hyperbole. All talk, VERY LITTLE actionable recycling.

Are the plastic and paper goods that are recycleable, recycled or thrown out? Not guesses or assumptions, real information please.

Thanks

Trash can.

Wrong!

Amtrak set up new contracts with garbage vendors in the last few years in order to deal with the recycling programs on-board. You'll notice that the recycle bins have either transparent clear or blue colored plastic liners. Both garbage and recycle bags are put off together at trash stops. After that it's in the vendors hands and materials in the special liners are intended for recycle processing.

If you are seeing regular black garbage liners in containers that are labeled for recycling then either Material Control was out of the correct bags or the cleaners or OBS employees put the wrong bag in the container.

Amtrak is attempting to recycle what it can. It's obviously not perfect. Additionally, it's my understanding that quite a few trains have already gone back to using china/glassware dishes and that most the trains should be eventually. Just FYI, some recyclers will not and/or do not want plastic or other recyclable material with foodstuffs on them. For example, in some areas you cannot even recycle a pizza box. I've noticed lately that some pizza vendors are putting the pizza on a sheet of wax paper in the box. This keeps the cardboard clean so that it can be recycled.

I can assure you, from what I've read and witnessed, Mr. Boardman is serious about Amtrak's recycling program. If you witness any shortcomings, feel free to contact customer service with your concerns.

I do appreciate what you are saying, but my experience on the East coast tends to be a lot closer to my answer than yours...FWIW

I am afraid I have to agree with OBS. From what I've observed on 11/14, even though they have seperate cans in the SSL/PPC it all gets mixed & thrown out together. I've also seen the diner trash in Portland go from the diner, onto the baggage cart & into the garbage dumpster, not a recycle bin. Its time if AMTRAK really wants to be green, to go back to china/glass on all trains.

 

[EB_OBS]

Unfortunately, there isn't much from the diner that can be recycled nor do the dining cars, on the Empire Builder at least, have recycling. They could probably make an effort to separate glass such as bottles out.

It's in the lounge car and coach cars where most the recycle containers are located.

I'll have to check with the District Managers I know as it was my understanding that the bags do indeed get separated out at some point. That's the reason for using the clear and blue transparent recycle liners. At least that's what I was told.

As nowadays many recyclables are commodities, it would seem to benefit the waste collection vendors to separate them out. Maybe I'm wrong but I will ask.

 

[Colonel Klink]

[...] plus of course congress cutting the staff to points almost no one can claim to be wise.

Remember, it is not Congress that specifies precisely how Amtrak uses the money they're given, though some are certainly trying to micro-manage more today than in the past. It is Amtrak's own decisions that are directly responsible for the decline in food service; all part of their brilliant scheme to cut customer service as a way to increase ridership and gain more revenue. I've seen trains in Europe offer a better product with fewer staff in a restaurant car; ditto airline food in first/business class.

Just FYI, some recyclers will not and/or do not want plastic or other recyclable material with foodstuffs on them. For example, in some areas you cannot even recycle a pizza box.

The thing is, Amtrak shouldn't be selling you food in a damn cardboard box. Heck, they shouldn't be giving you a drink in a plastic cup -- Deutsche Bahn gives glasses in their Bistro car, and they only have two people working.

[*multipost SNIP*]

I do appreciate what you are saying, but my experience on the East coast tends to be a lot closer to my answer than yours...FWIW

I am afraid I have to agree with OBS. From what I've observed on 11/14, even though they have seperate cans in the SSL/PPC it all gets mixed & thrown out together. I've also seen the diner trash in Portland go from the diner, onto the baggage cart & into the garbage dumpster, not a recycle bin. Its time if AMTRAK really wants to be green, to go back to china/glass on all trains.

Correct, and amen to that. Contrary to their advertising, Amtrak is one of the least 'green' carriers there is, if direct fuel-burning emissions aren't taken into consideration. It's bad enough all of the individually-wrapped pre-packaged food, but all of their cups, utensils, etc. are disposable. They certainly do not recycle squat, at least not in the East. Even on the Cascades, recycling from the snack car is left up to the individual passenger, and they're too lazy to look past the giant obtrusive white cardboard garbage cans sitting in the middle of the aisle. They never make it to the recycling containers at the car ends.