My son Eric and I are on the Lake Shore Limited, on a four night cross country trip from Boston to Portland Oregon, bedrooms all the way. I've taken the California Zephyr many times, so we thought we'd try the Empire Builder, which I last took about 30 years ago. But Amtrak took the EB Portland leg out of service, and rather than end our trip with an eight hour bus ride, we changed to the CZ and then the Coast Starlight north to Portland. Nothing wrong with a CZ/CS run.
We are doing this now, because I think the handwriting is on the wall for long distance bedroom and diner train travel. I was riding in bedrooms and eating in the diner since before I can remember. My family had a room on the original CZ, back in the Zephyrette days.
Amtrak has kept the room/diner model going for 48 years, far longer than anyone could have imagined back in 1971. We went through some hard times, I remember some pretty horrible airline style tray meals back in the Reagan era. When that happened, I ordered a pizza delivered at Ogden. Try that without a cellphone or internet. But while we may complain about the menu or the occasional rude attendant, generally as the song goes, nothing could be finer.
We've been through the “death of Amtrak” so many times, I've screened it out. Every financially conservative administration has tried to kill it, and the political expediency of being in almost every continental state has kept it going.
But now NARP/RPA has gone strangely quiet about the long term prospects. I thought they'd raise a fuss about the “Contemporary Dining” but they've just quietly documented the changes, and mumbled about trying to improve the product. Does anyone doubt that CD or even cafe car service will be the norm nationwide within two years?
Do we really need bedrooms? Of course we do. We love them, and there's nothing like it. But as much as I'd like to think that there's a demographic that really needs them, in reality I bet that a large percentage are occupied by people like myself, riding them just because it is fun and because we can.
I hope I'm wrong. I pray I'm wrong. But perhaps it is finally time to move on, and make the 21st century Amtrak the best passenger service it can be.
You don't need to convince me that it would be great to keep the room/diner model. But is it time to let it go, and start preparing for the future?
We are doing this now, because I think the handwriting is on the wall for long distance bedroom and diner train travel. I was riding in bedrooms and eating in the diner since before I can remember. My family had a room on the original CZ, back in the Zephyrette days.
Amtrak has kept the room/diner model going for 48 years, far longer than anyone could have imagined back in 1971. We went through some hard times, I remember some pretty horrible airline style tray meals back in the Reagan era. When that happened, I ordered a pizza delivered at Ogden. Try that without a cellphone or internet. But while we may complain about the menu or the occasional rude attendant, generally as the song goes, nothing could be finer.
We've been through the “death of Amtrak” so many times, I've screened it out. Every financially conservative administration has tried to kill it, and the political expediency of being in almost every continental state has kept it going.
But now NARP/RPA has gone strangely quiet about the long term prospects. I thought they'd raise a fuss about the “Contemporary Dining” but they've just quietly documented the changes, and mumbled about trying to improve the product. Does anyone doubt that CD or even cafe car service will be the norm nationwide within two years?
Do we really need bedrooms? Of course we do. We love them, and there's nothing like it. But as much as I'd like to think that there's a demographic that really needs them, in reality I bet that a large percentage are occupied by people like myself, riding them just because it is fun and because we can.
I hope I'm wrong. I pray I'm wrong. But perhaps it is finally time to move on, and make the 21st century Amtrak the best passenger service it can be.
You don't need to convince me that it would be great to keep the room/diner model. But is it time to let it go, and start preparing for the future?