Lake Shore Limited from Boston meal service.

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bigblue2007

Train Attendant
Joined
Mar 13, 2016
Messages
54
Location
PVD
My wife and I are taking the LSL from Boston/South Station to Chicago/Union Station via bedroom sleeper. How is the lunch meal handled from Boston to Albany? In the past it was a cafe car item choice.
 
In addition we are connection in Chicago on the Empire Builder and going to Seattle. It should be fun. Thanks.
 
I hope you will give us a report on this after your trip.

A friend who traveled on the Boston sleeper in December and early January (before the "improved" contemporary dining menu) reported that you could order from the then existing contemporary dining menu or order an item from the café car regular menu.

You could eat in the café car or the sleeping car attendant would bring your box meal to your room.  You could also have the attendant bring your box meal to you at dinner when the so-called dining car would be some distance from the Boston sleeper.  

Word has it that patronage has been very light in the Boston sleeper and I have wondered if the café car was actually stocking and offering the full complement of contemporary dining selections.  Perhaps it is as the Amtrak website implies but I am hoping we hear from someone with recent first hand experience on the train. 
 
Rode LSL in December.  It does look like the menu has changed since I rode.  The Beef meal appears to be the same and it is very disappointing.  The antipasto is ok but small in portion size.  At least they improved the breakfast, it was a single box option on my trip.  If you ride westbound out of Boston, they have a limited number of boxes or you can get Cafe food until you meet the rest of the train in Albany.

I do agree with the comment on light ridership, I was the only passenger in the sleeper car from Boston to Springfield and we only had 4 others by the time we reached Chicago.
 
I do agree with the comment on light ridership, I was the only passenger in the sleeper car from Boston to Springfield and we only had 4 others by the time we reached Chicago.
Thanks very much for your comments.  This confirms what I have been reading and hearing from other sources that except for the peak Christmas travel season, ridership on the Boston sleeper had been dismal.  It appears that in the last ten days, for reasons yet unexplained, the Boston sleeper did not even operate on two trips.  It is just pathetic what Amtrak management has done to this service.  
 
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It's the standard "contemporary" boxed fare.
When I see the phrase "contemporary boxed fare," I think of the cold experiment. Hasn't the LSL and CL upgraded that dismal failure to include some hot entrees? Or does the Boston section of the LSL still go all-cold?
Yes, most of the lunch and dinner options are served hot now, but they still call it contemporary, and it's still boxed (except for the continental breakfast buffet, which isn't served between BOS and ALB anyway), so I'm still calling it that.
 
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