July 1st Service Change Recap

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I have a trip in September with a friend and we plan to fly from Houston to NOL and then take the train from NOL-CHI-WAS-MIA but I'm thinking of just taking the bus to Longview to catch the Eagle there. But it would suck if we changed our plans to avoid the CONO and ended up with diner-lite-crap on the Eagle, too.

I'm sorry if it sounds like Amtrak bashing, but this is about the most disappointed I've been in Amtrak in a long time. At least they didn't kill the diner altogether, but in the long run they'd probably save more money doing that. Current sleeping car passengers aren't going to like paying full fare for Diner-lite so they could fill the sleepers with coach people that are used to eating from the cafe.

Like a light bulb, their bottom line would burn brightly just before it's extinguished completely.

One foot in the grave.
 
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Steve: you might want to consider flying or taking the Sunset to NOL, then take the Crescent to WAS, then the Meteor to MIA! ( forge the Star since it doesn't have a Diner @ all!!) This way you'd have real Diners the whole way unless some bean counting empty suit decides to expand this Moronic scheme to those trains too!
 
Jim, I actually think this is a tool for Amtrak management to show the negative effect not having a dining car can have on LD trains. While the "bean counters" you refer to may be in the Congress, I don't think anyone in Amtrak thinks it is a great idea to eliminate dining cars. Of course, I could be wrong! It would be amazing if not having a dining car has no effect on ridership!
 
haolerider said:
Jim, I actually think this is a tool for Amtrak management to show the negative effect not having a dining car can have on LD trains. While the "bean counters" you refer to may be in the Congress, I don't think anyone in Amtrak thinks it is a great idea to eliminate dining cars. Of course, I could be wrong! It would be amazing if not having a dining car has no effect on ridership!
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I was in Philly on Saturday and decided to use a coupon to go to the Acela Lounge in 30th Street and relax for a while. While I was in there, I asked the desk attendant if he had noticed any change in the proportion of passengers taking the Star or the Meteor since the dining car experiment. He said he hasn't seen any difference.

I wonder if some passengers don't yet realize what's going on and assumed they would have meals on the Star?

It's been a couple of weeks, now--any updates from anyone who has traveled on the Star recently? Reactions on board? Mood of passengers and crew? Or anyone seen a difference on the Meteor--more crowding in the dining car and full sleepers, for example?
 
OK . . . . I went on the Cardinal on July 2-3. Food was between mediocre and tasty (basically pretty good). Weird waiter though. Kept forgetting stuff and mixing up who ordered what. I wouldn't mind if that happened on the City of New Orleans. Kinda sad that this does happen.
 
I'm departing on the CONO with my parents, brother and sister next week on the 21. My brother and I were last on Amtrak two years ago. As for everyone else, it's been since 2006. My mom has really been looking forward to eating in the diner (I've had to explain to her that it is now a CCC, and what that is). Maybe now I should start warning about them getting hopes too high. I agree with others on here. Too much money to reserve a sleeper and then get food like this. I am halfway considering just staying in my room and eating something I bring on my own. That menu is an embarrassment. As far as my 17 day long trip in January, I'm hoping this doesn't spread to other trains by then. If it does, I will seriously consider canceling. I'm not spending two weeks eating that mess.
 
There is a test period for the Food Service degrading, but is there any hope Amtrak will be allowed to revert back to normal DC menus? Also, I wander who is judging/preparing the results - Congress? so they get the results to make them look good?
 
A friend of mine took the last CONO with a full diner on June 30, he's even got a menu autographed by the chef.

The Capitol Limited seems to have closed their downstairs cafe in the lounge car , though it still has a sightseer lounge, when i rode it last week they were using something that looked like a refurbished Cross Country Cafe. Only 1 side of the diner was used at a dining car the other half was used as a cafe lounge. It wasn't working too well at all, the've cut back to 1 waiter and were only taking 12 people per dinner seating. As a result , "last call" for dinner happened just after 11:00pm Eastern. They were hustling people in and out of the diner too, we had about 20 minutes to sit, order, eat and leave. I ended up having to take half of my steak back to my room (the steak and the RR French Toast I had for breakfast were still TOP CLASS) I don't know if it was just for the summer or what but there is a 3rd complete sleeper on the Capitol Limited right now. And they are still selling rooms in the TransDorm. Sleepers were sold out through Cumberland MD according to one of the conductors. I also have NO idea why but in the sleepers you get blankets still in their wrappers. Evidently it is now up to you to make up your own. I really don't like that. Neither did my SCA Lou.
 
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Michael061282 said:
Only 1 side of the diner was used at a dining car the other half was used as a cafe lounge. It wasn't working too well at all, the've cut back to 1 waiter and were only taking 12 people per dinner seating. As a result , "last call" for dinner happened just after 11:00pm Eastern. They were hustling people in and out of the diner too, we had about 20 minutes to sit, order, eat and leave.
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Disgusting. Utter incompetence by Amtrak management. Complete waste. For the cost of an extra waiter, they could have actually served the crowds...

I don't know if it was just for the summer or what but there is a 3rd complete sleeper on the Capitol Limited right now. And they are still selling rooms in the TransDorm. Sleepers were sold out through Cumberland MD according to one of the conductors.
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And yet this is what's supposed to be going on. These are the economies of scale which make railroading work. This is good! But why are they sabotaging it with incompetent dining service? Terrible.

I also have NO idea why but in the sleepers you get blankets still in their wrappers. Evidently it is now up to you to make up your own. I really don't like that. Neither did my SCA Lou.
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Apparently it's a "hygeine" thing. The blankets used to be used for a whole trip, reused for each subsequent passenger, and now you're guaranteed a "fresh" blanket. I suppose the wrapper is a way of proving that it's fresh.
 
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With the blanket thing...yeah, that was being floated as a hygiene thing. That said...please complain to management about that if you're not thrilled with it (as I'll be if I ever end up on a train with said "service option").
 
I actually prefer to get the blanket in a wrapper. Anyone who wishes to have it unpacked and put on bed can ask the SCA to do so and I am sure they will oblige. But the default should be delivery in wrapper.
 
neroden said:
The blankets used to be used for a whole trip, reused for each subsequent passenger, and now you're guaranteed a "fresh" blanket. I suppose the wrapper is a way of proving that it's fresh.
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Wrong. Both the blankets and sheets are changed between passengers.
 
Ugh. I have a trip on the TE coming up in a couple weeks and I get on at MIN. Of course the Eagle is frequently late....so if it's expected in after 7:30, does that mean I just grab a hamburger at the Texas Burger Company or something, and not count on being able to get dinner, if they're shortening the meal period?

I remember a time when I got on a couple minutes after 9 pm (very late Eagle) and the SCA sent me down to the DC to see if I could get dinner....yes, they served me, yes, it was good service (not surly, not, "When are you gonna get done so we can close up"). Yes, I tipped accordingly.

I don't MIND having to grab my own burger or something if the Eagle is really late but I need to know FOR SURE. None of this, "The dining car might still be open after 7:30 pm or it might not." That's the biggest issue for me with Amtrak lately: you can't know ANYTHING: whether there will be bottled water in the sleepers. What the mealtimes are....

(If a sleeper pax gets on a very late train after the diner closes, can they get lounge car food (within reason) comped, or do they have to pay out of their pocket? If I'm gonna pay I'd rather get a good burger at a restaurant in town than hope they still have mini pizzas in the lounge....)
 
On my Empire Builder trip in May, neither direction had a wrapped blanket. One leg started at an origin station; in that case, I think it's reasonable to have the blanket already on the bed. What do you think?
 
"Used to" is the operative phrasing, and yes, I've found documentation of the past practice. I think that practice actually ended before the blankets started coming wrapped...

It's totally OK as far as I am concerned for the attendant to unwrap the blanket and make the bed.
 
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It would not bother me at all to have to place a blanket on my berth; after all you usually have to tear the linens apart to be able to get into the thing to start with.
 
OlympianHiawatha said:
It would not bother me at all to have to place a blanket on my berth; after all you usually have to tear the linens apart to be able to get into the thing to start with.
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These days I don't bother with trying to get the linen untucked. I just spread out the blanket and cover myself with it. Works just fine with much less effort and is much more like what I do at home anyway!
 
jis said:
OlympianHiawatha said:
It would not bother me at all to have to place a blanket on my berth; after all you usually have to tear the linens apart to be able to get into the thing to start with.
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These days I don't bother with trying to get the linen untucked. I just spread out the blanket and cover myself with it. Works just fine with much less effort and is much more like what I do at home anyway!
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Well, there's another labor-saving idea. Srsly. Put a wrapped top sheet beside the blanket. No more complaints about sheets too tightly tucked. And much more like what I do at home anyway!
 
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