New dining options (flex dining) effective October 1, 2019

[Dakota 400]

Would it be possible (maybe not practical) to have a more luxurious train on a limited basis during the 'high season'?
It would be the 'cruise experience' available once a week. Maybe it would be possible to outsource a private dining car to provide the service

I like your idea. But, given the currently situation, it has no chance of happening.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Would it be possible (maybe not practical) to have a more luxurious train on a limited basis during the 'high season'?
It would be the 'cruise experience' available once a week. Maybe it would be possible to outsource a private dining car to provide the service

That’s exactly what Iowa Pacific tried to do. I rode it, behind the city of New Orleans. It was a great experience. Unfortunately there were lots of reasons that it wasn’t successful. (It was frequently selling out, it was way more complicated than people not wanting to ride or wanting to pay the prices).

 

[MARC Rider]

Would it be possible (maybe not practical) to have a more luxurious train on a limited basis during the 'high season'?
It would be the 'cruise experience' available once a week. Maybe it would be possible to outsource a private dining car to provide the service

Isn't that what the evil Mr. Anderson was proposing to do with this "experiential" train service? Do something like run, say, the California Zephyr with full service and really cut back on-board service on all the other long-distance trains.

 

[tgstubbs1]

What if some company (with their own dining cars) did it? It could be like Xterra has the concession for National Park food service. They could put it on all the long distance trains.

 

[MARC Rider]

All right, enough of piling on to poor Amtrak about their lousy food. (even if it's true.) They're not the only ones with this problem. Last Monday, my daughter and I took a hike at Susquehanna State Park in Maryland that involved a drive up I-95 from Baltimore. After the hike, we were a bit hungry, but didn't want to bother with driving around Havre de Grace looking for carryout, so we decided to stop at Maryland House, the service plaza on I-95. The service plaza, under the Phase 2 re-opening, is open for restrooms, the convenience store, and about 3-4 fast food options. We made the mistake of getting fish tacos at the Phillips seafood stand. We wanted something lighter, and really didn't want to spend $15 for a crab cake or fish and chips. And we didn't want the burgers or hot dogs being sold at the other places.

It took forever to get our order, despite the fact that there weren't many people waiting in line. There was only one server and one person back in the kitchen. The server took the order, and then also had to bag the takeout boxes coming out of the kitchen. It was all very inefficient, and when the server wasn't taking orders, for every complete order, she had to rummage around the serving area finding stuff that was included in the final package.

What was worse was the food. Now I know that Phillips is a tourist trap, so I wasn't expecting the acme of Chesapeake Bay seafood cuisine, not to mention the fact that this is the heart of gringoland, so I wasn't expecting an authentic Baja culinary experience, but I was hoping for an edible fish taco, which shouldn't be too hard to mess up. What we got was what looked like a 1 oz. strip of grilled fish-like substance, wrapped with some wilted lettuce with a few squirts of an orange mayonnaise-based sauce in a cold flour tortilla. All for $7.50. Plus the fountain drinks were somewhere in the vicinity of $2.50. Oh well, at least it jacked our blood sugar a bit for the drive home, where I was able to reheat some nice leftovers from Sunday's dinner for a real meal.

Fortunately, we found a shady picnic table outside and "enjoyed" our eats on a beautiful day. Even the roar of traffic from I-95 didn't bother us too much. I will say that mask compliance in Maryland is pretty good, and this location was no exception. The inside seating was supposedly closed, but some people were eating there anyway and nobody was chasing them away. But so few people were doing it, and social distancing was being maintained.

My point is that it's not just Amtrak. Finding good food while traveling is a pain in the neck unless you really take some time to research stuff and are willing to divert from your route a bit. Obviously, if you're not driving in your car, it's a little harder to divert from your route. Even if you are driving in your car, you might not be in the mood or have the time to explore the countryside for good eats, and so you will end up, like we did, at Maryland House.

 

[flitcraft]

Your experience mirrored mine at the so-called "Phillips" outpost at BWI...

 

[crescent-zephyr]

What if some company (with their own dining cars) did it? It could be like Xterra has the concession for National Park food service. They could put it on all the long distance trains.

Again... that’s exactly what Iowa Pacific did lol.

 

[Rasputin]

All right, enough of piling on to poor Amtrak about their lousy food. (even if it's true.) They're not the only ones with this problem. Last Monday, my daughter and I took a hike at Susquehanna State Park in Maryland that involved a drive up I-95 from Baltimore.

My point is that it's not just Amtrak. Finding good food while traveling is a pain in the neck unless you really take some time to research stuff and are willing to divert from your route a bit. Obviously, if you're not driving in your car, it's a little harder to divert from your route. Even if you are driving in your car, you might not be in the mood or have the time to explore the countryside for good eats, and so you will end up, like we did, at Maryland House.

Chances are that you were not paying $600 - $2,000 for a roomette or bedroom in order to take your hike. Those who are paying for such accommodations might expect to receive a bit more in the way of meal service.

 

[tricia]

Chances are that you were not paying $600 - $2,000 for a roomette or bedroom in order to take your hike. Those who are paying for such accommodations might expect to receive a bit more in the way of meal service.

Also, long-distance train riders are captive clientele--they can't decide to go to a different restaurant. Decent food on board is absolutely needed.

 

[Barb Stout]

I personally don't mind paying for service but if I pay, I don't expect to (in fact I demand I should have the right to not) be tracked, be observed by Google analytics, be spammed with "personalized" or other ads, site cookies, third party cookies, trackers, etc.

I dumped my "free" Yahoo email for a paid service ($3/month) that has outstanding service (same day response to tech issues) and no tracking, no ads, with simple interfacing, instructions and help for all sorts of local email programs, and some amazingly advanced features.
But even if you pay (and I pay Amazon for products), you get spammed with garbage. You have to search for their Non-Privacy page to find you may have to write or call them to "opt out" of SOME "services".
Try using a VPN with a European site and see the differences when you connect to a site via that VPN in the U.S. and in Europe. I barely recognized the site because it was so clean and few, if any, cookies.
When media sites guarantee me that if I pay for their service, none of the garbage will exist, then I'll sign up for it. Otherwise, ad blockers, private windows, constant cookie clearing, cookie blocking, VPNs and more are part of the equation.

And if anyone mentions that newspapers always had ads, remember, they were not on page one, were not IN YOUR FACE,not tracking you, not popping out when your mouse (eye) passed near them ,etc.

Edit: Sorry for supporting the "drift from the topic".

That's why I do read physical newspapers. Plus, after I finish with them, my parrots get to "read" them.

 

[20th Century Rider]

All right, enough of piling on to poor Amtrak about their lousy food. (even if it's true.) They're not the only ones with this problem. Last Monday, my daughter and I took a hike at Susquehanna State Park in Maryland that involved a drive up I-95 from Baltimore. After the hike, we were a bit hungry, but didn't want to bother with driving around Havre de Grace looking for carryout, so we decided to stop at Maryland House, the service plaza on I-95. The service plaza, under the Phase 2 re-opening, is open for restrooms, the convenience store, and about 3-4 fast food options. We made the mistake of getting fish tacos at the Phillips seafood stand. We wanted something lighter, and really didn't want to spend $15 for a crab cake or fish and chips. And we didn't want the burgers or hot dogs being sold at the other places.

It took forever to get our order, despite the fact that there weren't many people waiting in line. There was only one server and one person back in the kitchen. The server took the order, and then also had to bag the takeout boxes coming out of the kitchen. It was all very inefficient, and when the server wasn't taking orders, for every complete order, she had to rummage around the serving area finding stuff that was included in the final package.

What was worse was the food. Now I know that Phillips is a tourist trap, so I wasn't expecting the acme of Chesapeake Bay seafood cuisine, not to mention the fact that this is the heart of gringoland, so I wasn't expecting an authentic Baja culinary experience, but I was hoping for an edible fish taco, which shouldn't be too hard to mess up. What we got was what looked like a 1 oz. strip of grilled fish-like substance, wrapped with some wilted lettuce with a few squirts of an orange mayonnaise-based sauce in a cold flour tortilla. All for $7.50. Plus the fountain drinks were somewhere in the vicinity of $2.50. Oh well, at least it jacked our blood sugar a bit for the drive home, where I was able to reheat some nice leftovers from Sunday's dinner for a real meal.

Fortunately, we found a shady picnic table outside and "enjoyed" our eats on a beautiful day. Even the roar of traffic from I-95 didn't bother us too much. I will say that mask compliance in Maryland is pretty good, and this location was no exception. The inside seating was supposedly closed, but some people were eating there anyway and nobody was chasing them away. But so few people were doing it, and social distancing was being maintained.

My point is that it's not just Amtrak. Finding good food while traveling is a pain in the neck unless you really take some time to research stuff and are willing to divert from your route a bit. Obviously, if you're not driving in your car, it's a little harder to divert from your route. Even if you are driving in your car, you might not be in the mood or have the time to explore the countryside for good eats, and so you will end up, like we did, at Maryland House.

For this there is a cure! No, not a cure for the virus but a cure for having to put up with the pandemic food problems.

I got myself some of those plastic food storage containers and filled them with fruits, nuts, crackers, veggies, dip, etc. and created a gourmet experience. Takes time to forage for the goodies at the grocery but it saves money and time when on the road, and it's fun. Ingenuity and self sufficiency at such a time gives one more control over the many inconveniences and restrictions we are all dealing with.

 

[20th Century Rider]

Has anyone seen or posted this article from the Business Insider... "People hated Amtrak's new airline-style meals so much they filed 125 pages of complaints in the first year after the change" Now that it's all over the system people may be a little more understanding because of the pandemic... but do we know if this will become permanent... that is... until they make further cuts in frequencies and services???
https://www.yahoo.com/news/people-hated-amtraks-airline-style-170040466.html

 

[willem]

I personally don't mind paying for service [...]

I intended to subscribe to the on-line version of my local paper. I was unable to subscribe for one month (or for any time period, for that matter); the only options were for a continuing subscription of varying durations with auto-renew. The terms and conditions said that I was responsible to review the (undated) terms and conditions periodically to see if they had changed. In other words, if I wanted to know if they had changed, I needed to save the current terms and conditions and compare them to the future terms and conditions periodically. The web site was explicit that I would not be notified of changes or even that changes had been made, even though the web site required an email address to subscribe. After all that, I needed to deal with a Captcha to give the paper my money. (What bot is going to pay? And if it does, why would the paper care?) At this point, I abandoned the attempt, and the paper is continuing to struggle without my support. I did call the paper to share my comments, but I have little hope that the person who takes comments gets them to anyone who can do something with them.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I intended to subscribe to the on-line version of my local paper. I was unable to subscribe for one month (or for any time period, for that matter); the only options were for a continuing subscription of varying durations with auto-renew.

Does your local paper allow one-and-done single month subscriptions for physical delivery? Every time I signed up to a local paper it was part of a continuing subscription until I cancelled it from my end.

The terms and conditions said that I was responsible to review the (undated) terms and conditions periodically to see if they had changed. In other words, if I wanted to know if they had changed, I needed to save the current terms and conditions and compare them to the future terms and conditions periodically. The web site was explicit that I would not be notified of changes or even that changes had been made, even though the web site required an email address to subscribe.

This may be a simple misunderstanding. The phrase "without notice" is a common legal term used to withhold future plans so they can be released on their own schedule. It does not mean you will never receive any notice of changes, but it does mean that you may not be notified when subscribing in June that they have already decided to change the terms and pricing in January. Personally I wish some sites would spend less time prompting me to accept and acknowledge each and every change they make.

After all that, I needed to deal with a Captcha to give the paper my money. (What bot is going to pay? And if it does, why would the paper care?) At this point, I abandoned the attempt, and the paper is continuing to struggle without my support. I did call the paper to share my comments, but I have little hope that the person who takes comments gets them to anyone who can do something with them.

If I was managing the website for a local paper I would care a lot if a bot was allowed to ransack the site and flood every story with links to scams for the cost of a single subscription.

 

[Dakota 400]

My point is that it's not just Amtrak. Finding good food while traveling is a pain in the neck unless you really take some time to research stuff and are willing to divert from your route a bit. Obviously, if you're not driving in your car, it's a little harder to divert from your route. Even if you are driving in your car, you might not be in the mood or have the time to explore the countryside for good eats, and so you will end up, like we did, at Maryland House.

So true! One of the things that I enjoy doing before a driving trip is doing the research for those places where I will be stopping/staying. I have found some interesting non-chain restaurants that I would never have known about with such research.

My Mother was such a researcher. Many years ago, on a trip to Florida, she had discovered a restaurant that now has a politically incorrect name: Aunt Fanny's Cabin. It was near Atlanta. For this Ohio teenager, it was a very unique experience with no printed menu (it was all on a small piece of blackboard that the server brought to the table.) Food was excellent and the ambiance was, as I said, very unique.

 

[willem]

Does your local paper allow one-and-done single month subscriptions for physical delivery?

I don't know. If it's all done electronically (no human labor), I think it should. If I'm paying the paper, why should I need to go to extra effort to stop paying the paper when I knew that was my intention when I started paying the paper?

This may be a simple misunderstanding. The phrase "without notice" is a common legal term used to withhold future plans so they can be released on their own schedule.

Maybe, but the terms said that I was responsible for checking for updates and that I would not be notified. The simplest reading was that the publisher expected me to check and compare terms on every visit, or to decide that the terms were not meant to read at all (which is what I believe the publisher expected).

If I was managing the website for a local paper I would care a lot if a bot was allowed to ransack the site and flood every story with links to scams for the cost of a single subscription.

I hadn't thought of that. On the few occasions that I visited the site, I did not see comments from anyone, but I could have mentally discarded them.

 

[AmtrakFlyer]

I don’t actually think Anderson had a plan, I think it was all BS. In 3 years there was no vision only cutbacks and hollow promises that never materialized.

If anything his Experimental train would just have been a traditional dining car service while all other trains had boxed meals. In essence you could call today’s Auto Train the “Experimental” train even after its recent cutbacks.

Isn't that what the evil Mr. Anderson was proposing to do with this "experiential" train service? Do something like run, say, the California Zephyr with full service and really cut back on-board service on all the other long-distance trains.

 

[tgstubbs1]

I wonder who Iowa Pacific used on their dining program. Dining on the train seems to be a fairly popular activity and of course commuters save time eating on the train.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

I wonder who Iowa Pacific used on their dining program. Dining on the train seems to be a fairly popular activity and of course commuters save time eating on the train.

I’m not sure what you are asking? Iowa Pacific was the “program.”

 

[AmtrakFlyer]

As far as the Hoosier State? Normal crew at non union wages. It appeared to be younger or second career type employees. Highly motivated. The Hoosier States diner had better food than anything Amtrak has or possibly ever had.

On a smaller scale like the Hoosier State or even the Alaska RR it can be done there’s a lot of motivated enthusiasts who would do the job for a couple years but that’s it. I equate it to flight attendants at regional airlines who make $1500-2000 a month with a high deductible insurance plan and not much else besides travel benefits. Great for a couple years to see the world but not a long term job.

 

[tgstubbs1]

OK. I've never heard of Iowa Pacific. I thought it was some old railroad.
It seems if they could satisfy the tourist traveler on a limited schedule and still save money with the lunch box service the rest of the time.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

OK. I've never heard of Iowa Pacific. I thought it was some old railroad.
It seems if they could satisfy the tourist traveler on a limited schedule and still save money with the lunch box service the rest of the time.

Oh sorry. Iowa Pacific operated the Pullman cars on the back of the city of New Orleans and then operated the Hoosier State train on board service.

I’m pretty certain that the goal was for Iowa Pacific to take over some long distance services such as dining Cars. They just couldn’t stay running $$$ wise long enough to get there.

But Iowa Pacific didn’t do anything that Amtrak can’t do if they want to. The menus were pretty simple, just nicely plated and presented.

 

[Maverickstation]

Per the Amtrak website, Traditional Dining (save for the Auto Train) is now suspended through August 31.

https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/meals-dining/dining-car.html

 

[railiner]

I am wondering why the Auto Train was excluded from the full service diner cuts....perhaps its diner was the most heavily used?
Or was Amtrak afraid they would permanently drive away their customer base for that train? And why would they only be concerned with that train?

 

[joelkfla]

And why would they only be concerned with that train?

Profitability?