Also to add in case your like me and care about this:
-Full Service / Enhanced has Linen Table Cloths and real China, cloth napkins, and Signature Silverware.
- SDS has "paper" (very nice woven, you'd swear it was cloth from a distance) table cloths, Plastic China (again you'd swear it was real china without touching it, or I would at least) and plastic coffee cups (these are my only real gripe). SDS has cloth napkins, and Signature Silverware.
Not sure about Diner Lite.
In my experience here on the East Coast (Crescent, Lake Shore prior to Diner Lite, and Capitol) the SDS has improved to a state that I feel is just as good as prior to SDS even with the loss of certain staff members. However on the West Coast with larger crowds, I have heard service and capacity suffers quite a bit.
not much more to add here, really. in all three cases (full dining, SDS, and 'diner lite') most of the food is prepared prior to stocking the train from a contractor (currently gate gourmet, i believe). on full dining and the recently revamped SDS trains, steaks, eggs, and some other items are 'freshly' prepared on the grill. previously full dining meant a great deal was prepared on board, but cost cutting has taken its toll there as well. perhaps someone here with recent experience on the empire builder and/or the auto train can offer a better comparison between the two as to food prep itself?
the difference between full dining and SDS is mostly related to labor: to save the costs of servers and dishwashers, the reservation system (how many persons can be served in a given sitting) was modified, and 'real' dishes/tablecloths eliminated for SDS, replaced with plastic and heavy paper respectively. real metalware has been retained for both. 'diner lite' is separate case. like SDS, the goal is to again limit labor costs as well as eliminate the need for two revenue cars per train (a diner and a cafe or lounge car). so they've combined them. 'diner lite' cars, or more properly diner/lounge cars, combine the function of both. nearly all food is reheated in convection ovens and kept warm through steam tables. this doesn't necessarily mean the food is worse-off than elsewhere -- although i personally cannot attest to the quality of food on amtrak services from experience.
if you are interested in the difference that 'diner lite' brings to the table, so to speak, there are some 'reviews' of the updated menus. NARP has updates on the
new SDS menu, the
amfleet 'diner-lite' cars running on the lake shore limited and cardinal, and the
superliner 'diner-lite' car running on the city of new orleans, and soon on the texas eagle. amtrak also has information on the superliner 'diner-lite' cars, also known as 'cross-country cafes' on its
web site. and lastly amtrak has
sample menus available based on its updated SDS service.
the gist of recent discussions both on this forum and others is that the recently revamped SDS offerings are much-improved, the food and service on the lake shore limited much degraded, and the cross-country cafe on the city fairly impressive but doesn't really offer too much in the way of proper lounge services. i'm sure there are folks here who can inform as to their own experiences in recent months how the 'new(er)' dining offerings on amtrak have panned out in their view. our family cannot eat the food offered on amtrak for religious reasons, but it has certainly appeared fine across the table in front of table-mates.
-- eliyahu
waterbury, ct