I for one think it might be a good idea to contract the "premium" services to another company. Amtrak gets paid fare and haulage cost, and the company charges for the rest of it.
Some other things occurs to me here:
I doubt if the companies who bid and/or win will be able to find employees willing to spend so much time away from home and on a moving restaurant to boot, with all of the possibilities for regular, late, arrivals home. I think they would have similar problems: low staff moral and quite possibly constant employee turnover. This is NOT like working a regular restaurant! And unless the pay would make up for the shortcomings, who would want to work it???
They tried to contract out the 'premium services' to Subway in New York, they did subcontract out catering to Gate Gourmet, would love to see the accounting on that one. But hey, they eliminated that union!
To work on board you need to have a "passion for the rails", People who think they would "enjoy" it
don't last long.
The pay: work up to 18 hours a day, over time after 180 hours a month, 4 hours extra for working holidays, {clerks, mechanic, conductors get up to double time and a half},no sick days, 1 day personal day after 7 years, then your family gets to sit around and watch Trent Lott and Richard Baker lie about how much you earn [yeah, you youcan earn 90k ayear, if you work 18 hrs a day for 300 days a year} and how much you steal on CNN, while you miss your sons first baseball game and your daughters first recital.
And presently we are the only employees that pay our own benefits.
Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but please, the Plantation Daze were over! now the CCC has brought 'em back.
As far as the crew congregating in the diner, I hate that, but it wasn't 40 years ago we had to sleep in the diner. With the removal of the crew quarters on the Crescent [ the OBS crew are now assigned revenue rooms] and other trains, where can Conductors go to tally Amtraks's money? The coaches?
Our motto was " People serving people". Don't make it " People subserviant to people"
I'm to old to tap dance anymore.
It's a mess, thank you Congress!
Chef Allan Thomas