Lunch on a late eastbound CL?

What is the current policy for serving lunch on the eastbound Capitol Limited? I assume that if the train is on time heading into WAS, they do not serve lunch, but if it's delayed beyond a certain point, I imagine they would have to? Is it a specific cutoff (i.e., if more than X hours late, they will serve lunch), or is it left to the discretion of the crew? And does anyone have any recent experiences of how this works in practice?

Last time I took this train, they were still doing the "express lunch," and I know a lot has changed since then. On my upcoming trip, I will of course bring some emergency food for myself (as I always do), but I'm curious if anyone can give me an idea of what to expect.

Johanna said:

What is the current policy for serving lunch on the eastbound Capitol Limited? I assume that if the train is on time heading into WAS, they do not serve lunch, but if it's delayed beyond a certain point, I imagine they would have to? Is it a specific cutoff (i.e., if more than X hours late, they will serve lunch), or is it left to the discretion of the crew? And does anyone have any recent experiences of how this works in practice?

Last time I took this train, they were still doing the "express lunch," and I know a lot has changed since then. On my upcoming trip, I will of course bring some emergency food for myself (as I always do), but I'm curious if anyone can give me an idea of what to expect.

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Since the switch to Fresh and Contemporary Meals on the Lake Shore and Cap, all you'll get is the New and Unimproved Breakfast, since they dont stock any Lunch items on #30.

There is no policy at present......

Was on a Capitol Limited that arrived into Washington DC at nearly 3 pm in both April and May 2019. We didn't get lunch...... Breakfast was offered from the Diner/Lounge in the morning, but that was it! I had purchased a sandwich the day before out of Chicago, both times, and that was fine for my lunch onboard. Not sure if any other passengers did the same or not.

Cafe was open, but had limited items as the train was operating later and later. I think it still closed upon departure at Harper's Ferry, but we were already a few hours late in arriving/departing Harper's Ferry eastbound.

I think if it was running HOURS and HOURS late on the eastbound run - perhaps arriving in the evening, Amtrak would have to have something delivered to the train, as no extra provisions are carried with the contemporary dining plan.

Many of the sleeping car passengers had connections to make at Washington DC upon arrival and it was often a mad dash to get to the ticket counter to have tickets exchanged if connections were missed and then a late lunch on the connecting train or snack in Metropolitan Lounge before heading out!

I was on a very late Silver Meteor into Miami last year and was told that the new policy was that "additional" meals would only be served if the train was 6 hours late. We were only 4 hours late, and thus did not receive dinner. I do not know if that is the policy Amtrak wide, just on the Silver Meteor or was just that of that particular crew that particular day.

pennyk said:

I was on a very late Silver Meteor into Miami last year and was told that the new policy was that "additional" meals would only be served if the train was 6 hours late. We were only 4 hours late, and thus did not receive dinner. I do not know if that is the policy Amtrak wide, just on the Silver Meteor or was just that of that particular crew that particular day.

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"Isn't this Special!"

I've been on a late eastbound Cap when they broke out the Amstew (I didn't partake but you can assume it's canned beef stew) and on another after the 'fresh-contemporary" rolled out. Nothing there. Save a granola bar from the breakfast you might need it.

Well, that's unfortunate. I'm glad I asked, though.

It seems like really poor planning not to even stock enough lunch items in the cafe, given how often lateness happens, and given how even the on-time schedule arguably warrants a lunch service. But maybe they're doing poor planning on purpose these days?

Passenger rail travel in the 21st century keeps getting more adventurous. Or at least less predictable. I still prefer rail to bus, car, or flying. Bring on the speculation and contingencies if Amtrak must. We'll all survive!

Amtrak has always had an underlying scheduling goal to get the eastbound Capitol Limited into Washington DC before 12 noon. But as long as it is the only long distance train serving Pittsburgh, not going to happen. On one of David Gunn's CL eastbound schedule it was carded to arrive at 11:59 am, but arrival was more like 12:30 pm. Had a consistent eastbound "arrival time" emerged, the CL would be out of the "lunch business" and a same day turn at Washington DC was to be done. The later never emerged though. Gunn really wanted to reduce the CL train set requirements down to two. Get into Washington DC before 12 noon, clean and turn the consist at DC, have it head back out by 5:30 pm.

Contemporary dining on both the Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited operates on the premise that the train won't be incredibly late. The Lake Shore Limited passengers have a long wait for dinner after lunch though! And if that train is running over three hours late coming into NYP, things could get real interesting with some passengers onboard as eastbound dinner is not served! The Boston sleeper car passengers at least get another meal eastbound. I suppose if the Lake Shore Limited is REALLY late, food could be loaded at Albany for sleeping car and coach passengers for the trip down the Hudson River to NYP.

It might make sense for the Lake Shore Limited to leave at 9 pm eastbound from Chicago (if the LSL is needed for connecting passengers from Western trains, they hold it at Chicago, what else is new). If it IS READY to go though at 9 pm - get it out there. Tightening up the schedule from Cleveland to Albany would also help with this train, but that's only going to come with improved infrastructure as Amtrak is not giving up any existing recovery time that is built into the schedule.

After the Broadway Limited was taken off the schedule completely back in 1995 +/-, the Lake Shore became the cleanup train out of Chicago and it departed at 8:30 pm, with arrival into NYP at 3 pm. But that was now nearly 20 years ago and all we've seen is more running time added to most LD trains........over the years, Amtrak hasn't even wanted to tighten up schedules on the NEC for LD trains, even if they can now operate more than 90+ mph with the Heritage equipment retired.

Last weekend on the Texas Eagle we were going to be five hours late getting into Chicago (lost most of this in the middle of the night at Little Rock with a "body" in a auto on the tracks).

It is due in around 2:30, so they elected to delay lunch until 3:00, but they would not tell us this. I asked about lunch at 11:30 and their response was "we just finished breakfast and need a break". Ok, then I went back at 12:30, still just hanging out doing nothing and they would not tell me when lunch would be. They finally gave out "snack packs" at 1:00 to the whole train, still no word on WHEN we would get lunch. FINALLY let us eat at 3:00. If they would have just told everybody at the beginning what their plan was I would not have been happy, but I would have know. To me Lunch is around noon. I knew we would be into Chicago 7ish I could have grabbed a bite to eat before the LSL left.

But when asked about lunch they acted like we were asking them to pick up someone else's steaming hot dog poop off the ground with their bare hands. Very unprofessional and frustrating for a passenger