Just curious - what did happen when they put in the vending machines? After all, it's pretty wasteful to have a person serving what a vending machine can mostly serve (chips, drinks, etc.) And vending machines for things like pizza or burgers exist too. In addition, doesn't the Piedmont have vending machines?
This may be true, even if a little. At present, Amtrak has no food cars set up with all the accouterments and wares of a full bar: no blenders, shaker and strainer apparatus, and most of all, no room to fit every possible premium liquor that people like in their margarita, sangria, cosmopolitans, etc. Therefore, we can perhaps do without all the hardware i listed above and maybe use pre-mixed cocktails, and then charge them for it with a markup. While we can get away with asking $4 - 5 bottle of beer, which is only slightly more than a the bars I go to but much more than the news stand, if Amtrak got creative and started using premium tequilas like Patron' in some of their drinks, maybe we can get the alcohol sales to work harder. Or: since we are such a major carrier that serves beverages in trains of all categories, why not approach the makers of these liquors to ask for a custom size or mixture that allows for more choices of more desireable items, thereby commanding a higher price? If Amtrak made and sold mixed cocktails and other drinks and charged higher for it, and dress up the Amfleet cafe tables and lighting a little, they very well could have alcohol subsidize the food by selling not just a drink, but a NIGHT OUT while traveling!! It's a similar concept to the Coast Starlight's Pacific Parlor lounge which is also the norm d reguer on Auto Train and Empire Builder.
You and me both! And not just because I live in Atlanta. Amtrak must have a XX year contract with Pepsi.
I agree, to an extent-At between $5 and $7 per can of beer as I recall, that is a bit higher than I am usually willing to pay for multiple drinks. Cut the price 20%, and I'll up my intake 80%! Would really like to have more of a lounge atmosphere-The current crop of cafe's are more like the concession stand at a high school football game. Reasonable prices (for what you get-Don't get me wrong, I would pay $7 for a 22 oz draft craft beer. But I'm not paying $60 for a 12 pack of Budweiser!) and a better social atmosphere would be great! Bring back the bar from Silver Streak. Real cocktails, a real bar to sit at along with the tables, and I think alcohol revenue would go up.
There it is..........it's that bloated overhead again.
Yes, the Peidmont has vending machines which work wonderfully. The Piedmont trains have old combine cars which are used as checked baggage / lounge cars. In the center of the car is the vending area with snack and drink machines, coffee machines, and a refrigerator with mini bottles of water. The few times I've ridden the machines were all well stocked and in working order. It would make absolutely no sense to pay a lounge car attendant on this route. There is no reason that other day trips couldn't adapt to this as well.
Well you can't have a vending machine mix up a Bloody Mary for you, and I assume that you cannot acquire alcohol at all because there is no way to card, so the Pacific Surfliner would lose a lot of its lounge revenue mid-July - Labor Day IYKWIM.
Must vary from one route to another. EVERY time I took a train trip, they had to call diners in shifts because they could never fit more than about 20 percent in the car at one time. But isn't it obvious that no matter what you think of present prices, they are too low? How do you lose money if you price to offset costs?
While these purposes are admirable (and I support both efforts), I suspect that the real reason for the hearing was to give Mica a beat-up-on-Amtrak day. Otherwise, the total amount of the losses would not have been particularly at issue except as they related to the fraud problem. Yet the headline had diddly squat to do with either of the issues you mention, instead focusing on a very big number. The theft/fraud total could have been played up as "Congress investigates fraud approaching $100 million over ten years at Amtrak" or somesuch number (inflated though it might be), but there seems to have been at least a decidedly different gist to things.
Surely you jest?I once saw that Interstate highways get over $400,000,000,000 of money from the government. Forgot the source. Now just wait for the numbers when you add up U.S., state, and county highways, and other roads....."Amtrak Food Service Lost $xxx Million"? I would like know how much highways lost in the same period?
[slaps hand on head] That's right - we taxpayers do not subsidize highways at all!It's free!
I don't see what the problem is with Amtrak food. Much better than McDonalds. What do you not like about the food?
You assume wrong. In CT the lottery vending machines have a scanner on them. You must scan your drivers license before you buy a lottery ticket. Unknown if this can be used for a 50 state thing, but the equipment is out there.
You can see the validity of that observation even in apples to apples comparison between what is characterized as LD service by Amtrak. Palmetto generally performs better financially than almost any other run of the mill Amtrak LD train.
That's because most of them are sleeper passengers, who don't specifically pay for their food, and thus would not be affected by a price increase.
There's a point where the prices are too high to be practical. For instance, $2 for a can of soda is very high, but any more would drive almost everyone away - so revenues would go DOWN instead of up.
Sleeper passengers do pay for their meals. They're priced into the ticket price and a portion of that ticket revenue is allocated to the dining costs.
So, if for instance the dining car raises its prices, the sleeping car ticket prices will rise as well?
Heck, Sleeping Car prices rise even when the Dining Car does not make any changes. So any Dining Car related price rise will probably be lost in the noise anyway.
