i have looked for these thoughts I am holding, but no one has brought this concept up. What if Amtrak gets out of the food service business completely? Amtrak hires a professional contractor to handle food and beverage on board. Its not impossible to do and make money from the deal. Many corporations have greater buying power than Amtrak. The vendor comes in and redesigns the lower lobe kitchens, sets up provisioning stations, point A to B to C. Places its own crew inside, handles its own cash, liquor, beer and wine. Amtrak does not need to be in the food service business.
There are many smart operators that could make this all work. Limit the dining car selections to that of a Dinner Train, three or four entrees, all with salad, entree, dessert. Years of Amtrak numbers will reveal how much steak, pasta and seafood is served. So, meal planning is an equation based on past passenger selection. Easy to obtain passenger load factors and how many used the long distance dining car.
Actually, an airline kitchen would be great at this type of catering. Have no idea who caterers anymore, I did for 40 years. There were many independent airline caterers around in my time. I was one of those guys. It was all about numbers and percents of the passenger load factor. Examples, coffee creamers were boarded and 70% for a morning kickoff flight. Milk on a meal flight, 1-8 passengers, OJ Quarts, 1-10 passengers. Some amounts were standard, coffee, sugar PCs, bev naps.
This is a form of airline catering as meals are based upon a percent of passengers who will eat chicken at 30%, steak at 60%, cold plate at 10% for 16 first class passengers. On long haul flights, passenger counts are much higher but the same percents apply. Appetizers in first class are based on 60-40% choice. Chocolates at 110% and so on with wine and beer. Airline liquor kits are packed with maybe 40 units and based on 1 full kit for 30 passengers. The same percents were followed in coach when meals were served in the back. An airline would board a hot meal at 70%, sandwich/snack at 30% for 130 coach passengers.
Just tossing this out, an independent caterer who has the brains, bucks, rolling stock and a hefty amount of insurance could pull this off nicely. Just a thought. Entrees, pre-made, blast frozen fresh and hot could produce an outstanding, quality, inexpensive meal..
Trains could be serviced for the entire trip based on historical numbers, the way Amtrak does it now. Sound too hard? When I started in the business, I catered Braniff International, and Eastern Airlines from an old pizza parlor, 5 miles from the airport and through 3 school zones. Anything is possible with a vision, a little money and friends in high places. Just my thoughts.