NEW YORK — Full dining-car service has come to an end on most Amtrak routes in the eastern U.S., with Tuesday’s arrival of northbound train No. 20, the Crescent, with dining car Nashville, marking one of the final arrivals for a train offering food prepared on board.
The Crescent arrived late at New York’s Penn Station on Tuesday at 4:44 p.m. On Monday evening, the Nashville’s staff had prepared and served meals to sleeping-car and coach passengers as the train traveled north from New Orleans and Atlanta. By Tuesday morning, breakfast service had shifted to Amtrak’s “Contemporary Dining” program of pre-prepared meals, available only to sleeping-car passengers.
The Crescent, Silver Meteor, City of New Orleans, and Cardinal all made the switch to the “contemporary” program as of Oct. 1. Changes to dining service on the Lorton, Va.-Sanford, Fla. Auto Train won’t come until January 2020.
As of Tuesday, coach passengers on those four trains can only buy food in a café car. Sleeping-car passengers, whose meals are included as part of their accommodations, will receive meals heated on board that they can eat in the dining cars, staffed with an attendant assigned to the car, or in their room. [See “Analysis: ‘Evolving’ menu on tap for all Amtrak eastern overnighters,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 17, 2019.] Each meal will be served on plastic plates and accompanied by a salad and brownie.
On Auto Train, sleeping car passengers will continue to receive traditional dining car service. As of Jan. 15, 2020, coach passengers will have a dedicated café car offering meals, snacks and beverages for sale; a complimentary continental breakfast will also be available for coach passengers in that car. Food trucks at the Auto-Train endpoints of Lorton and Sanford will also be available for departing passengers.
For New York, the change marks the end of more than 120 years of passengers being served meals prepared onboard. In the 1880s, the New York & Hudson River Railroad (a New York Central subsidiary) touted the New York-Buffalo and Elkhart-Chicago dining cars on its Chicago and St. Louis Vestibule Limited.
Amtrak, which cities a congressional mandate to cut costs on meal service as one of the factors driving the changes, anticipates the moves will save $2 million annually. It declined to comment on the end of staffed dining car service in the east.
— Updated Oct. 3 at 12:30 p.m. CDT to correct that new onboard meals are not reheated and dining cars have an attendant, and details on Auto Train food service.
I just read about the Auto Train meal changes for coach customers. Was I told this by Amtrak when I made a reservation last week for May, 2020? Nope. So, I called Amtrak for an explanation and the person I spoke with was misinformed about so many things. According to the rep, the reason why meals for coach customers will no longer be served is that meal service is the most frequent complaint. I told the rep that I would have expected dirty toilets to be number 1 on the complaint list and he said, “Well, yes, that is the most frequent complaint.” What? He then told me that there will be food trucks at both Lorton and Sanford where food can be purchased. He elaborated by saying that pizzas have to be served to all customers when any train is more than 30 minutes late and food trucks solve the problem of passengers who are lactose intolerant. Again, What? I’ve never received free pizza and I’ve had reservations on trains that have been hours late. The rep continued his story by telling me that everyone complains because the first people seated at dinner on the Auto Train take hours to eat and the following seatings are then are not on schedule. This guy has been employed by Amtrak for 3 years and this is the baloney he dispenses. At any rate, I sense a disaster about to happen, which I am sure Amtrak will work very hard to cover up. I see flights in my future.
As a sleeping car passenger, I have experienced both the sit-down meal and the boxed (microwaved to your perfection) one currently served on the eastern long distant trains. Obviously, the sit-down meals were far better and you met some interesting fellow passengers at meal time. That’s not the case anymore.
While the coach passengers may not have partaken to a great extent of the dinner meal service, many did of the breakfast service. So, the the current policy really screws these passengers.
Mr. Henderson does not like the LD trains. He likes the short distance trains. Why?.
Because most of the subsidy for these trains is borne by the states in which they pass. It makes his bottom line line good. Note that state subsidies are classified on AMTRAK’s profit and loss accounts as “revenue,” the same as fare-box revenue. So the short distance lines appear to be at least marginally profitable. They’re not, and netter is the eastern corridor.
While I do not expect a really first class meal like years past, even on Amtrak, they still should provide good sit down meals in dinning cars on long distance trains. Both coach and first class passengers should have access to the dinner. For example on several occasions I have ridden the train between Philadelphia and Minneapolis and usually take a sleeper car to Chicago. However since it is not overnight to Minneapolis I ride coach from Chicago. This train leaves late afternoon from Chicago so I always had dinner in the dinner on the way to Minneapolis. If mr. Anderson’s dinner policy is implemented system wide I will not be able to use the dinner and most likely not take the train. So here you not only loose a passenger from Chicago to Minneapolis but most likely also on the overnight eastern overnight train. Even in the east I am sure there are coach passengers with similar situations where they are traveling during breakfast, lunch or dinner times but not necessarily going to the end point of the train. The lounge car or in the east snack bar lounge cars are not good enough to encourage people to take the train. In the long run I am sure they will lose more revenue in fares than they save on full dinning car service. One last thing let’s not forget all the money they wasted buying all those brand new eastern single level dinner cars that are not going to be used or greatly underused.
Chris Thompson: This republican is not opposed to the concept of Amtrak’s long distance passenger trains at all. Instead, I recognize that there are serious problems with the current way most transit systems from the Long Distance train down to the local bus are operated that need to be dealt with to make them a far more viable system.
Check this out:
http://www.ensingers.com/Bill222E/vacuumtubetravel.shtml#
I want you to remember only a few years ago that Amtrak. The View series diners, who are the new diners going their service is not up I got year left on them why are you trashing that’s their lines for you
Amtrak you are wrong, trains and dinner car go to geather, this ceo is only for the airlines, I bet there a conflict of interest, when Congress pass ,the Railroad act, there no where it said, it was for the North East only,
I think the different food options for sleeping car passengers and coach passengers has something to do with the airline mentality currently at the top of Amtrak. After all, Anderson is a Delta guy. First class passengers on the airplane get unlimited drinks and hot food served on plates while coach passengers can purchase a boxed sandwich and chips for $10 or so. The only freebees coach passengers get is a cold drink or coffee in a plastic or cardboard cup and a little bag of pretzels. They don’t even get that freebee on the train. I think Anderson is trying to emulate the airline industry.
As for one commenter, passengers shouldn’t have to choose between good food and on-time arrival. They should be getting both.
Chris Thomson, why do you blame Republicans? I know a lot of Republicans, including me, who support trains. Bringing politics into this is counter productive and uncalled for.
This reminds me of the last time I rode The Coast Daylight. It’s impossible to know for sure if the passengers abandoned the SP or the SP abandoned the passengers. That was a three car train devoid of such niceties as carpeted floors. The third car was a vending machine care. The toasters didn’t work, but there was nothing to toast anyway. The only hot food was a limited selection of canned slop, I think Chef Boy-r-dee or something from a machine. There wasn’t even an attendant to help anyone. Of course, there probably weren’t two dozen passengers on the train.
Amtrak seems to be headed down that same path. One of the unique things that makes trains attractive is a full service dining car with tablecloths, ceramic plates and cups, and metal flatware, and a crew of waiters and chefs serving freshly prepared food. It gives the passengers a break from sitting in their rooms or coach seats. Prices should be comparable to a similar restaurant and might not cover all the costs, but it isn’t just about making money. It’s about attracting riders.
These downgraded food offerings are no substitute for a full service diner and will result in more people choosing to not ride the train. This may not be an exact comparison, but would you go to a movie theater if the seats were hard benches and nobody picked up the auditorium between shows? That’s what reheated food, bare tables, plastic ware and a cardboard plastic lined trash container near the door is on a train. Yech!
Will Amtrak execs wake up or would they rather downgrade the business until there is no more business at all?
Ladies and gentlemen, the whole reason Ol’ Slash and Burn Anderson was brought in was to annoy and irritate the Amtrak passengers into not taking the train, thereby giving President Dingleberry and his henchmen the evidence to cut funding. I don’t think it would surprise any of us if Anderson had a committee working on pay toilets; $1 to use the toilet, a vending machine for toilet paper, soap, etc., anything to drive away customers, except in the supposed “Gold Mine” of the Northeast Corridor. It’s really sad that airline food is becoming a better choice than meals on a train. Oh well, I guess I’ll just eat my boxed lunch and wait for the election next year.
I’ve long advocated—to deaf ears—that the Vermonter needs a dining car. While not overnight, 12+ hours and through all meal times end to end—the option of a hot meal or two or three would be a welcome alternative to trying one of everything on the snack car (been there, done that, quite recently, in fact—not very fulfilling).
A diner on the Downeaster could also work. Again, trains operating at all mealtimes. Needs creativity, but with advance reservations and even pre ordering meals online or via 800 number, many meals could be served….
We need more dining cars, not fewer.
6 cents per Amtrak passenger. Quite the savings!
(On assumption of 32,000,000 annual Amtrak riders; caveat is that not all those riders had dining car access before, but still, a huge change that saves virtually nothing, and might cost Amtrak money of even a few potential passengers opt not to ride due to on board service cutbacks…)
Without the full-service dining car our many years of east coast rail travel have ended. I can not sit for eleven hours in a coach with just an over-priced microwaved hamburger to sustain me and I will not stoop to being that obnoxious passenger with an armload of rustling and crinkling fast-food bags. Maybe if Amtrak streamlined at the top rather than cutting service at the bottom they’d bring riders back. In recent years it seems Amtrak has done everything it can to push passengers away from the trains.
I really don’t understand why this is so difficult. I’ve ridden trains all over Europe and have experienced the simple but very satisfactory dining cars on most Deutschbahn trains. Very good table service and high quality meals, yet I believe the crew is roughly three, with one handling the take out counter and two manning the dining room. This summer, I had really decent meals on VIA in the Montreal to Windsor corridor. It’s beyond ridiculous that the US/Amtrak can’t figure this out. There needs to be decent, sit down dining service. Pictures of the food being served by Amtrak are not impressive. Amtrak needs to do better. Two million a year in a two billion budget is not significant when there is likely to be a good deal of lost revenue.
Mister Miller:
I have flown extensively in the course of my employment (one year I had 106 takeoffs and landings) and have witnessed the demise of the air industry over the last (mumble) years. Once, flying was an adventure and something to be looked forward to. These days … well, not so much.
The trip by rail made sense when first booked. I didn’t plan the washout, and I certainly didn’t plan breaking my ankle. As for Greyhound, it got me out of the origination city the same day. I could not have got a flight out of there in under a week.
I was pretty annoyed with Amtrak and did plan to cause trouble. But my employer sweetened things considerably by upgrading my lodgings (Presidential suites are nice, the concierge service was much appreciated by “the gimp”), and by allowing me to keep the rental car for two months. I can highly recommend the Buick Enclave, by the way, if you are in the market for a minivan, it even had satellite radio and I do love classical music. That did take the sting off.
But still … who are these people, and why do they persist in driving away their customers?
The above comments are generic in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn stylite.
To Anna Harding:
Counselor, are you traveling for the enjoyable experience of train travel, or are you trying to change locations? I posit that you now can’t do both on Amtrak. And likely never will again.
Indeed, Cattle Car Airlines will usually do a pretty decent job of helping you change locations, even when you’re beset with a leg cast. I’ve never heard anyone called a “gimp” in an airport or on an airplane. Airport customer service personnel and Flight Attendants refer to special needs travelers as “deals” or “meet and assist pax.”
ATL handled over 107,000,000 passengers last year. And while it wasn’t glamorous, people (and their bags) got where they were going. Sounds lot easier than a train-rental car-Greyhound shuffle.
This is another major step in the rebranding of Amtrak. Anderson and his team are moving their service model from “an historic anachronism catering to travelers in search of an experience” to “a way to change locations with a reduced taxpayer cost.”
Yes, I fondly remember meals in Southern and N&W dining cars…and fine dining in a AA DC-7s; Delta 727s; and an Air France Boeing 707. There was nothing like the steak dinner on Delta’s flight #675, the evening ATL-DEN B727, heading to ski at the then-new Vail and Beaver Creek resorts. They called it Royal Service. And it was grand.
The 72s are long-gone, as is Delta’s Royal Service program.
Everything changes. Change is a constant. And for Amtrak, it’s about time. I’d much rather see growth in 100-300 mile service lanes, with 4 or 5 reliable schedules each way each day, than a diner-prepared meal.
If you want a diner-cooked meal, patronize one of the two dozen or so really great dinner trains around the country, many operated by museums that will genuinely appreciate the service opportunity.
And maybe send a nice letter to Union Pacific, thanking them for restoring the #4014.
Mr. Hazeldine: Right on! Having ridden the pre Amtrak Crescent several times I can report that the train was always carrying Southern Railway management people from Washington to Atlanta. That was the policy. Let’s see Anderson and company take their own trains to Chicago or wherever the next time they need to travel.
Attempting to compare long distance rail travel with airline is futile. Per passenger subsidy for air travel is a small fraction of that for any form of rail travel, commuter to long distance. And the problem of rising per passenger rail costs, when the cost per passenger flying is decreasing, is only getting worse. The horse was out of the barn when the Constellations and DC7s were developed in the mid 1940s and will not return unless fuel gets so expensive, or polluting, that economics force it. So, there’s still hope if you consider that hope.
Mister Landey:
I have seen spectacularly bad service from Amtrak before. Some years ago there was a washout on CSX and Amtrak annulled service past a certain point. This happened after I booked the ticket (and connecting train) but before the date of service. I knew about this annulment so I made alternate plans to get off the train at an intermediate stop, rent a car, journey on by auto, and abandon the value of the unused portion of the ticket.
When I got to the station I was refused boarding because I had a through ticket and they were not offering service to my destination on that date. I tried to explain my plan but it fell upon deaf ears. I was forced to buy another ticket.
When I came back to try to board I was refused boarding because I was on crutches – I had hurt my foot the week before and was in a cast. I could not get up the stairs into the car without assistance and such assistance was flatly not forthcoming. When a friendly fellow traveler helped me in (all I needed was a steadying hand to get up the first step), I was then told to disembark because I could not handle my bags by myself to the seat.
Amtrak personnel were visibly snickering at me the whole while, calling me “the gimp”.
I ended up taking Greyhound from my originating city to where the car was awaiting. There were plenty of people willing to help a woman on crutches with Greyhound, and I wasn’t called “the gimp”.
I tried to get a refund from Amtrak for the unused tickets but was told that because I had boarded the train and then disembarked, no refunds were possible. Had I not been too busy with work you better believe Amtrak would have heard from me again, and more formally. As it was, my employer paid for the unused tickets and my inconvenience, so I wrote the whole thing off. But it left a sour taste in my mouth.
Now they are at it again. It is almost as if current management is operating under a mandate to make passenger rail so unpalatable that anything – even Cattle Car Airlines, even Greyhound (you can meet some really fascinating people on a Greyhound bus), is preferable to riding Amtrak.
Who are these people, and who is pulling their strings?
The above comments are generic in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn disgruntled voyager.
I don’t know why everyone is so down on Cattle Car Airlines. I feel much less cooped up in an airplane seat than squeezed into one of our two Subaru SUVs, which have less leg room than Cattle Air. Last month I had five delightful flights (three alone on Southwest, two with my wife on JetBlue) over an eight-day period. Plenty of good food at the airports before boarding. Decent wine on the flights which I partook of on those flights I wasn’t driving after landing. Extremely friendly crews and gate personnel. No delays. Clean, modern airports. Availability of rental cars. What’s not to like?
Scenery? If it’s daytime and not cloudy, there’s plenty to see from an airplane. I gave my Wisconsin-born wife an aerial tour of my native northeastern US, pointing out locations from Virginia to Delaware to New Jersey to Long Island, Connecticut, Rhode Island, the Massachusetts South Coast, to my home city Quincy on the Massachusetts South Shore.
In the 53 years since my first flight, I’d say almost ran on time. I recall only two that didn’t. A weather delay out of Newark but eventually we got in the air. A flight annulled at Asheville – Spartanburg North/ South Carolina but I got home later than same day via another airline. If it had been Amtrak, an annulled train at a small city like Asheville – Spartanburg could have left me stranded for days.
There is a way to split the difference, although I am not sure how cost effective it would be. Break your journey up into one-day segments, bring food for each day’s segment onto the train and, at the end of each segment get off the train, find a nice hotel, have a good sleep and a good meal, then continue on.
Bring back the Harvey Houses!
The above comments are generic in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn itinerant drummer.
Of course there are logistics problems in pre-ordering meals. I don’t know how many commissaries (or caterers) Amtrak has. Let’s take a long-distance train with a commissary or a caterer at each end, say Chicago and LA. An intermediate passenger (say, Kansas City) would need to order a meal two or three hours before the train leaves its originating terminal. Failing that or not knowing that or not wanting that, the passenger would be reduced to pretzels, coffee and maybe a stale pastry. That is why generations of rail passengers expected to order meals on route, with all the associated costs and all the associated wastage adding to the rail carrier’s costs.
Even in the days of multiple routes and multiple frequencies, railroad commissaries must have experienced huge amounts of food going to waste.
Needless to say a passenger boarding at an unstaffed station in Kansas at 3:00 AM can’t expect to be fed at the station before boarding. In the way that I can expect a choice of nourishing meals at any airport before boarding or between flights if I transfer.
The bottom line is, all the more reason why LD trains are functionally obsolete and economically obsolete, and essentially have no future.
Anna, the Amish bring loaded coolers on to the trains. So basically you can bring any food you desire. People who travel in coach regularly bring sandwiches, chips., etc. and buy a drink on board. Don’t forget that the café service will still be there and I assume that means some hot items will be available. The sleeping car travelers who want the dining cars to be like they were in the golden years of rail passenger service are the big losers–but I think any reasonable person could have seen that coming in recent years once it was revealed how much Amtrak was loosing on its food service.
I was doing some surfing yesterday. I read about the EAS, Essential Air Service. Small airports pay a subsidy for airline passengers. Big money, last year Over $293,000,000. It pays up to $1,000 per passenger. Very interesting, Google this sham site. But we are getting railroaded out of this money. Go look this up, must have 2 landings per day. What a waste of mine and your money. Rhinelander Will is paid A $48 subsidy per passenger. Or $1,704,000 plus per year. Or Havre $2,212,000 each year. This is an Amtrak stop.