I know they made some changes to this,but i don't remember the details. I suspect that the experience ismuch dimnished from the full service diners.
I might be riding from NYP to Chicago. Does this new set up handle the load of passengers on this route? How is the crew morale?
Thanks
Our experience was quite pleasant. We boarded a sleeper in ROC westbound on the first leg so all we really experienced was breakfast. The crew was efficient, and the food was good. The crew (everybody) was friendly. It's certainly not a "full diner" car, but it's far superior to "fast food."
We were seated across the table from each other, alone. Lots of empty tables.
On the way back we experienced the wine and cheese thing upon boarding, and this time the diner was full. We were seated side by side, across the table from another couple, which I guess is the usual arrangement for meals. No problem with that.
Breakfast the next morning was a repeat of the first leg. Efficient, pleasant service, good food. Far superior to fast food, but certainly not full service diner class.
The interesting thing came before lunch. The train hit a semi-trailer about 20 miles out of ROC. Nobody was hurt, but the state police did have to do their investigation, and that held the train up for almost three hours. That pushed us into the lunch time; it was obvious that the diner crew wasn't ready for that kind of rush for lunch, but we did get seated side by side for lunch, by ourselves. The food was a little slower in coming than it was for breakfast, but when it did get there it was hot, and quite tasty. The entire train crew remained efficient, and pleasant.