• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Amtrak- Dining Car Arrangements

Status
Not open for further replies.

Iskra

Established Member
Joined
11 Jun 2014
Messages
7,787
Location
West Riding
Some interesting low level changes to Amtrak's dining arrangements have been made, possibly indicating the future direction of travel on Amtrak services.

Thought this would be of interest as everyone loves a proper meal in a dining car ...but apparently not. Is this progress? I can see how it would be cheaper to operate and it is obviously better than no train at all if it makes the service nonviable, but is it undermining the sleeper experience too much? Microwaved meals seem to work on Caledonian sleeper and on SJ.

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/amtrak-revamps-dining

Amtrak revamps its dining service to appeal to millennials
Amtrak passengers on several sleeper routes will no longer travel to the dining car for a sit-down meal as the rail company announced it is doing away with the decades-old tradition of white-tablecloth service. Passengers will instead choose from a menu of pre-packaged meals that can be delivered to their carriage as complementary room service. Or, they can choose to take their meals to a new version of the dining car that still has booths but no tablecloth service.

As the old-timey tradition disappears, so do old-school menu items like steak and French toast. Passengers can instead order pre-packaged items when booking train tickets online like Asian noodle bowls or red-wine braised beef for dinner, Creole shrimp and Andouille sausage for lunch, plus a continental buffet for breakfast. Wine, beer and spirits are also on the menu, with the first drink on the house and unlimited soft drinks available.

GettyImages-1170112222.jpg

New dining options Amtrak will be serving aboard their updated train service include Creole Shrimp and Andouille sausage. Image by Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
The revamped dining service is part of Amtrak's push to appeal to millennial riders, who, company officials believe, prefer to eat in privacy rather than in communal spaces.

"Some people really like [the dining car] and view it as sort of a nostalgic train experience,” Peter Wilander, Amtrak’s vice president of product development and customer experience, told the Washington Post. "Some people, especially our new millennial customers, don’t like it so much. They want more privacy, they don’t want to feel uncomfortable sitting next to people."

GettyImages-953921876.jpg

The dining car will no longer be available on some East Coast routes from 1 October. Image by Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The change goes into effect on the Cardinal (New York to Chicago), City of New Orleans (Chicago to New Orleans), Crescent (New York to New Orleans), and Silver Meteor (New York to Miami). The revamped dining service will also be available on the Silver Star (another New York to Miami service) next year.

Along with flexible dining services, Amtrak is also upgrading East Coast trains with new seat cushions, curtains and LED reading lights. The company has also replaced carpets and introduced mats that can be refreshed throughout the journey and will upgrade bedding, towels and linens for sleeping cars, beginning with the Auto Train (Virginia to Florida).
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

ainsworth74

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Global Moderator
Joined
16 Nov 2009
Messages
27,542
Location
Redcar
Sounds like Millennials are being blamed to give Amtrak cover for cost cutting to me...
 

306024

Established Member
Joined
23 Jan 2013
Messages
3,940
Location
East Anglia
Amtrak catering is really from a different age. I can see how their policy of getting strangers to sit with together over a meal and actually converse with each other is uncomfortable for some of today’s headphone society, but that is all part of the appeal. Had numerous wonderful conversations over the years, discussing anything from baseball to moon landings.
 
Last edited:

nlogax

Established Member
Joined
29 May 2011
Messages
5,352
Location
Mostly Glasgow-ish. Mostly.
Amtrak catering is really from a different age. I can see how their policy of getting strangers to sit with together over a meal and actually converse with each other is uncomfortable for some of today’s headphone society, but that is all part of the appeal. Had numerous wonderful conversations over the years, discussing anything from baseball to moon landings.

Same here. Amtrak dining cars have afforded me some great times having conversations with complete strangers, many of whom have wonderful stories. The food isn't all that but you're not there for the fine dining, you're there for the people, the view and the shared experience.
 

yorksrob

Veteran Member
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Messages
38,818
Location
Yorks
I see the dreaded phrase 'continental breakfast' quoted. Was there previously an American equivalent to the full English available ?
 

StarCrossing

Member
Joined
27 Jul 2015
Messages
134
Wow! I knew they were doing this, but hadn't heard the "appealing to millennials" line before. That's the most outrageous bit of spin I've come across in a long time!
 

nlogax

Established Member
Joined
29 May 2011
Messages
5,352
Location
Mostly Glasgow-ish. Mostly.
I see the dreaded phrase 'continental breakfast' quoted. Was there previously an American equivalent to the full English available ?

Not quite - but eggs are on the menu and you can order sides of sausage and bacon so it's a little bit DIY in that respect.

Continental breakfast is already an option but this looks like it's moving towards a standard motel or cheap hotel breakfast buffet. Coffee, pastries, yoghurt, cereals, that sort of thing.
 

yorksrob

Veteran Member
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Messages
38,818
Location
Yorks
Not quite - but eggs are on the menu and you can order sides of sausage and bacon so it's a little bit DIY in that respect.

Continental breakfast is already an option but this looks like it's moving towards a standard motel or cheap hotel breakfast buffet. Coffee, pastries, yoghurt, cereals, that sort of thing.

Ah, no substitute for a sausage and eggs then !
 

sprunt

Member
Joined
22 Jul 2017
Messages
1,156
Wow! I knew they were doing this, but hadn't heard the "appealing to millennials" line before. That's the most outrageous bit of spin I've come across in a long time!

It's unfortunately the easiest spin in the world to sell - there are always plenty of people ready to buy it. Usually with the money from their lovely final-salary pension. :smile:
 

FQTV

Member
Joined
27 Apr 2012
Messages
1,067
Hilarious.

The food is, subjectively, awful, and has been for years. It's served on cheap plastic plates and the 'tablecloth' is a paper from a roll.

As it stands, the breakfast 'egg' is a microwaved omelette, with the addition of a Kraft Slice nuked on top of it if you select 'with cheese'.

The only thing that I have found just about edible is the 'Amtrak Burger'. And when I discovered that it's possible (for a tip, naturally) to order it from your steward who will deliver it back to your room in a polystyrene box wrapped in a carrier bag - both of which are of higher quality than the plates in the dining car - it borderline transformed the experience.

I have shared tables on many trains in many countries, but only on Amtrak does it seem to take under eight seconds for tablemates, once they have discovered that you a) possess a passport and b) come from Europe, to turn the conversation to 1) bedbugs and/or 2) air miles and hotel points.
 

185

Established Member
Joined
29 Aug 2010
Messages
4,970
My only irk with the Amtrak Restaurant was this 'tablemates' silliness - being forced to share the table is a double edged sword, on one sitting you get the nicest people, the next some redneck nutcase with hygiene issues. If you're travelling for a quiet, romantic holiday for two, you want some peace and quiet.

Amtrak's silly policy of squashing eight people around two tables whilst the other twelve tables go empty was just ridiculous and rubbish, and had to go.
 

LesS

Member
Joined
24 Apr 2012
Messages
159
Location
Sydney
I agree with FQTV. I found the food terrible. It was largely inedible. The burger was just ok. Other selections were awful. The use of paper plates/cups etc and plastic cutlery has become standard all over US. I was recently told that it has something to do with hygene. It suggests that dishwashing machines are inadequate. The Amtrak meals look good on the menus, however they are something else on the plate.
 

TCDD

Member
Joined
11 Oct 2011
Messages
98
Location
Staines
I tried the new style catering in early May on the Chicago - Washington 'Capitol Limited'. Supper was a microwave meal, breakfast was a microwaved roll, a coffee, and some other things wrapped in cellophane. It was, to put it bluntly, crap. It was even worse than on SNCF.
It's a real shame, as the sleeping car was lovely and the journey beautiful in every other respect.
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,539
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
Not quite - but eggs are on the menu and you can order sides of sausage and bacon so it's a little bit DIY in that respect

One difference between the US approach to cooked breakfast and the UK one is that in the UK the meat is the "main event" that you have other stuff (egg, beans, tomatoes or whatever) with it, whereas in the US you order the eggs "how you like them" and add what meat you want to them. So that doesn't seem overly surprising.

Curiously the UK is the other way round when it comes to the chippy, where chips are definitely the "main event" and the meat/fish just something to accompany them, and almost nobody ever orders anything without chips, with "just chips" being a perfectly valid thing to have.
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,539
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
My only irk with the Amtrak Restaurant was this 'tablemates' silliness - being forced to share the table is a double edged sword, on one sitting you get the nicest people, the next some redneck nutcase with hygiene issues. If you're travelling for a quiet, romantic holiday for two, you want some peace and quiet.

Amtrak's silly policy of squashing eight people around two tables whilst the other twelve tables go empty was just ridiculous and rubbish, and had to go.

I'd agree that is silly (just like their policy of locking out coaches because they "don't need them" rather than letting people spread out) - but I wouldn't ban sharing - "Sorry, Sir, all the tables are taken - do you mind sharing? Or if you'd prefer you can come back later?"
 

Crepello

Member
Joined
29 Jun 2018
Messages
56
"To appeal to millennial *beancounters* - there, fixed!

Rode a number of Amtrak routes while I still lived in Europe - like others above, fond memories of great conversations over dinner aboard Amtrak - often people from vastly different walks of life, who you generally wouldn't come into contact with. Granted, this was in the days (shortly) before cellphones became widespread, so chatter was a common way to pass the journey.

Also great chats in the bar car and smoking rooms - back when they existed. Noticed that most of the younger travelers were students - none of whom would dream of paying dining car prices but had brought there own food, or would purchase hot snacks from the snackbar.

Food was never bad - though granted, was never the USP either. Did hear that the Empire Builder was the last Amtrak train to have actual chefs aboard - certainly, they turned out a mean flateye steak!

Amtrak's silly policy of squashing eight people around two tables whilst the other twelve tables go empty was just ridiculous and rubbish, and had to go.
Actually it's the only way to run high-demand full service - you load, service, clear and bus the tables in the order people arrive - otherwise you've a random mix of arrival times by the time the dining car's full up, and everything falls apart.

I gather Amtrak's new(ish) CEO is from an airline background, so perhaps an inevitable move. Should we be fearful about baggage fees?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top