why can't food be better

[EB_OBS]

Back in 2010 Amtrak called together all the Customer Service supervisors, the Chiefs, to a meeting in Wilmington and directly stated that the program would be expanded from the 40-50 current jobs to as many as 180 in the next couple years. 20 were jobs were created almost immediately. Then that's it. Nothing more has been done to increase onboard supervision since then. Additionally some crew bases stick their CSQSs in the office when they are supposed to be 90% travel jobs. This keeps them on 8 hour shifts and keeps them from ever getting any additional hours of pay. A total misuse of the CSQSs intended purpose.

Also the CSQSs have zero authority to initiate discipline. Yes they can pull am employee out of service but then you are left with no one to work that position for the rest of the trip so this is rarely done. Their only power is to document and pass along their observations and statements to management. A system that failed when they were chiefs and still fails to this day to consistently correct poor performance.

 

[FormerOBS]

The auto-train though is not a true comparison to the rest of the LD service. The auto-train crew are hand picked, the cream of the crop so to say. Any Amtrak employee cannot exercise their seniority to bump onto an auto-train job.

Even the cream of the crop has its limits.

Tom

 

[Radvlad]

Also, as was said one must acknowledge how much they are paid. They are paid not just a living wage but a very good, some would say even upper middle class wage. They don't need the tips to live off of as would be the case in a regular restaurant.

Just some comments to many posts from this topic.

1. Amtrak waiters make $40k to $60K salary, depending upon seniority, regular or extra-board and OT. Quite far from upper middle-class. They have slightly better retirement than social security and pretty good health benefits.

I understand the $40K figure. It is possible, and not an unreasonable income for a career employee in today's economy. But I don't know where the $60K figure comes from. I never managed that, including tips and overtime. There are a few masochists out there who make extra trips whenever possible and accrue lots of overtime, but they are the extremely rare exception. They are usually very young and full of energy. Most normal adults would wear themselves out, make themselves sick, and become miserable human beings if they worked that much.

YMMV.

Tom

$40K may be a decent salary in Tulsa or Toledo but I don't think it's overkill for crew members based in cities with a high cost of living like Chicago or Los Angeles.

 

[Hal]

The auto-train though is not a true comparison to the rest of the LD service. The auto-train crew are hand picked, the cream of the crop so to say. Any Amtrak employee cannot exercise their seniority to bump onto an auto-train job.

LOL.

 

[Triley]

Also, as was said one must acknowledge how much they are paid. They are paid not just a living wage but a very good, some would say even upper middle class wage. They don't need the tips to live off of as would be the case in a regular restaurant.

Just some comments to many posts from this topic.

1. Amtrak waiters make $40k to $60K salary, depending upon seniority, regular or extra-board and OT. Quite far from upper middle-class. They have slightly better retirement than social security and pretty good health benefits.

I understand the $40K figure. It is possible, and not an unreasonable income for a career employee in today's economy. But I don't know where the $60K figure comes from. I never managed that, including tips and overtime. There are a few masochists out there who make extra trips whenever possible and accrue lots of overtime, but they are the extremely rare exception. They are usually very young and full of energy. Most normal adults would wear themselves out, make themselves sick, and become miserable human beings if *raises hand shyly*they worked that much.

YMMV.

Tom

*raises hand shyly* I may or may not be one of those masochists. I may or may not have had some 300 hours of OT since June. That being said, I'm 27. I figure I'll take it while we're short, and the work is plentiful.

 

[EB_OBS]

I know a TA/SA that once made over $90k in one year. He was probably home only 14 or 15 days that year.

He was young and unmarried at the time.

 

[EB_OBS]

*raises hand shyly* I may or may not be one of those masochists. I may or may not have had some 300 hours of OT since June. That being said, I'm 27. I figure I'll take it while we're short, and the work is plentiful.

I have over half a dozen months that I've worked over 300 hours in a month. The most was 346. This was as an LSA on the extra board during summer months.

 

[Triley]

*raises hand shyly* I may or may not be one of those masochists. I may or may not have had some 300 hours of OT since June. That being said, I'm 27. I figure I'll take it while we're short, and the work is plentiful.

I have over half a dozen months that I've worked over 300 hours in a month. The most was 346. This was as an LSA on the extra board during summer months.

The thing is, I'm out on the corridor doing this without any longhauls. It's near impossible to turn over 250 hours in a month in Boston without turning same day for a train, which CMC obviously tries to avoid. Still, I can't imagine that. You must've literally lived onboard the entire month, whenever you did those hours.

 

[neroden]

2. Raw ingredients I'm aware of on LD dining cars

Eggs, and you can still get fried eggs on the Empire Builder as far as I know.

Pancakes

Oatmeal

Hashbrowns are shredded and dehydrated. Reconstituted and cooked onboard.

Steaks

Fish

Baked potatoes

Vegetables, bagged and steamed or heated in hot water onboard

Rice pilaf, it used to be Uncle Ben's. Not sure if it still is.

Of these, sadly only the eggs, oatmeal, steak, baked potatoes, and vegetables have *known ingredients*. I've been unable to find out what's in the pancake batter or the rice pilaf or the hashbrowns.

Amtrak should leverage the eggs. Fried eggs should be possible on all trains with dining cars because *why not*, if you've got eggs already.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

There is a fairly logical reason behind the eggs. Scrambled eggs can be made as many at a time as needed and split among multiple plates. They all get cooked together and split when done. Nothing to keep track of. With only one cook, this keeps things more simple when it gets busy. Keeping track of one scrambled egg, one over easy, and one sunny side up, while making up other plates would be much more complex.

This is why some trains will still serve eggs cooked different ways upon request depending on the cook, and how busy the train is.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Raw ingredients I'm aware of on LD dining cars

Eggs, and you can still get fried eggs on the Empire Builder as far as I know.

Pancakes

Oatmeal

Hashbrowns are shredded and dehydrated. Reconstituted and cooked onboard.

Steaks

Fish

Baked potatoes

Vegetables, bagged and steamed or heated in hot water onboard

Rice pilaf, it used to be Uncle Ben's. Not sure if it still is.

Where I come from "raw" means unprocessed and perishable.

Eggs - Only offered as scrambled on the trains I ride.

Pancakes - Any ingredient that says "pancakes" isn't raw.

Oatmeal - Imperishable but close enough.

Hashbrowns - Raw doesn't refer to dehydrated goods.

Steaks - Amtrak's infamous Steak Island exception.

Fish - Not fresh but still raw so I must agree.

Baked potatoes - Fair enough.

Vegetables - The dinner entrees come with limp frozen vegetables.

Rice pilaf - Uncle Ben's is not raw, not unprocessed, not perishable.

In my view you're batting 5 out of 9 (or 55%) with this listing.

There is a fairly logical reason behind the eggs. Scrambled eggs can be made as many at a time as needed and split among multiple plates. They all get cooked together and split when done. Nothing to keep track of. With only one cook, this keeps things more simple when it gets busy. Keeping track of one scrambled egg, one over easy, and one sunny side up, while making up other plates would be much more complex.

This is why some trains will still serve eggs cooked different ways upon request depending on the cook, and how busy the train is.

Eggs are literally one of the fastest and easiest items for a trained cook to prepare. In my experience breakfast on Amtrak is generally the slowest meal of the day. Lack of cooked to order eggs/sausage/bacon puts me off ordering which presumably hurts Amtraks F&B budget.