Dining car: was this experience abnormal?

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Linda T said:
Linda T said:
I've done sleepers a lot, and I've never pre-ordered a meal. As a sleeper at lunch and dinnertime the dining[?] attendant will come through and take reservations for the upcoming meal, and then they go to coach and fill up the rest of the spots. When you're time comes you go to the dining car and they hand everyone at the table a menu, and then go to the next table while you look over the options. No one's allowed to fill out the dining card except the attendant, though sleepers do need to put down their room and car number and sign it. Then the attendant asks what everyone wants in order of whatever card is on top. This is how it's always been done on all the trains I've been on. I wouldn't even know how to pre-order a meal. :unsure:
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Just wanted to amend this to say that I have seen a Jewish family come into the dining car and sit down to a pre-ordered Kosher meal, I'm assuming that's not what the op is talking about though.

I've only eaten in the dining car on the CS, so I'm not familiar with the ordering format there. :)
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From amtrak.com

Special menu selections, including kosher and vegan are available on most trains with 72-hour advanced notice. 24-hour advanced notice is required for Acela Express First Class service. Vegetarian meals do not require advance notice.
 
To the OP: Yes, I think your experience was very abnormal. Almost without exception, my husband, who was mobility limited, and I received service ranging from acceptable to excellent, usually leaning toward the excellent end of the spectrum. However, the one exception did happen in the dining car. That was a long time ago and I don't remember the details. I only remember that service was poor and the attendant was rude, but not to the degree that you experienced. We did not report her to customer relations, although in hindsight perhaps we should have.

Most of our experience was on the Crescent, which seems to have a good reputation for service in general. We have traveled in coach a few times and in sleepers, and almost always took our meals in the dining car. I don't recall ever pre-ordering a meal or marking our selections on the ticket. We did sign the ticket, which is necessary because the cost of the meal is included in the price of sleepers.

Extremely poor service and bad attitude should be reported to Amtrak's customer relations department. They must be made aware of problems in order to remedy them.

I anticipate that your future experiences will be much better. It would be difficult for them to be much worse! :eek: Happy travels~
 
Thank you everyone for your comments! I will definitely try it out again.

It was a long time ago, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Because it was a while ago, there could be inaccuracies: what the others were doing with their forms: pre-ordering or not. I'm going off what I saw and what I was told. The meals were pretty pricey, but there isn't anything wrong with that alone.
 
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Amtrak's menu prices are high compared to Chili's and Friday's and the like, but consider that they include all taxes (8.25% in my neck of the woods) as well as coffee, tea, or milk (could save you $2.69 plus tax or so).

Now if you compare them to establishments where you can expect to see a constantly changing view outside your window (think one of those rotating rooftop restaurants), then, well....
 
ehbowen said:
Amtrak's menu prices are high compared to Chili's and Friday's and the like, but consider that they include all taxes (8.25% in my neck of the woods) as well as coffee, tea, or milk (could save you $2.69 plus tax or so).
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What taxes are they including? My understanding is that Amtrak is simply not taxed in the first place.
 
I think that your understanding is correct; however if you are comparing the cost of a meal in a diner to that of a land-side restaurant the tax is part of the bill that you expect to pay in the latter, even though it is not included in the menu price. If it makes you feel better I will amend my remark to, "No taxes are charged on the cost of an Amtrak meal, whereas they add a substantial amount (8.25% in my neck of the woods) to the cost of a meal in a regular restaurant."
 
Chris; Amtrak is tax free, he was comparing to the sales tax here in Texas which you know that we all pay! (Plus all the tourist taxes and fees on everything connected to travel!)

I find the food prices in the Diner @ Dinner and the Fast food and alcohol prices in rhe Cafe too high but Breakfast and Lunch are fair for what you get!
 
OkayTravel said:
Thank you everyone for your comments! I will definitely try it out again.

It was a long time ago, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Because it was a while ago, there could be inaccuracies: what the others were doing with their forms: pre-ordering or not. I'm going off what I saw and what I was told. The meals were pretty pricey, but there isn't anything wrong with that alone.
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I've eaten in the dining car while traveling in coach, and I've never had an issue. They take my order, bring my food, and present the bill for payment just like a regular restaurant. I hope you have a much better experience this time.

Good luck!
 
Guest said:
I am not as sure as the rest of you, that this is really a true account.

I read specifics like "$16 dollar plate of a few noodles with some sauce". If any of you have actually ever eaten in a dining car, you would know that there is no entrée which consists of simply "a few noodles". If I am wrong, I would welcome one of you to post a copy of an Amtrak menu with "a few noodles with sauce" listed.

As to wanting a drink, I know you can order soda, coffee, and wine, but I don't think you can order bar drinks. At least I never tried.

Plus, there is always some chance that this particular run was running low on supplies. I have certainly have had trips were one or more entrées were out. I am surprised that the possibility that they were running low, and had just enough dinners left to serve the sleeper class passengers, plus just a very few extras, isn't occurring to you all. Given that might be what's happening, I could envision that the server could have simply been steering this person to what's left/available.

Yea, I could envision that a coach passenger could feel "second class" in comparison to sleeper class passengers. That it might appear that the sleeper class passengers had "dibs" to the remaining meals.
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This does not really add up to me. So much of it makes no sense. Unless this is the Cardinal, what would motivate them to treat coach passengers so poorly. They're paying for their meals. Yeah the crew might not want the extra work but most of them understand their job. If it was supplies, I think the waiter would have just told him.
 
I haven't had the exact issue the OP had while riding coach, but I have had occasions where it was plain the LSA wanted no part of coach passengers in the diner. One such occasion was on the CS when the LSA sprinted through the coaches at breakneck speed, muttering under his breath about lunch reservations. Not very inviting. Not surprisingly, no one in the coach I was riding had lunch in the diner that day.
 
We just recently took the Meteor to Florida and the Star back.

Going down the crew was a bit unpleasant and told us that drinks were not included with dinner. We never experienced this and thought maybe Amtrak had changed policies. However, the drinks were included in the next day's breakfast and lunch! What?

Also, even though people were waiting to sit down, two tables were always covered in supplies and crap eliminating their use. This has been common on our Amtrak trips. Is there no place to store things?

Coming north the dining crew was even worse. At dinner the two of us (and another passenger) waited a half-hour before they even took our order. They told us not to order the Kung Pao chicken because it wasn't very good. Why even have it on the menu then?

The next day at breakfast, my girlfriend and I wanted again 30 minutes at the table before I had to go up to the LSA and inform him that no one had taken our order. They weren't even that busy!

We have ridden Amtrak between Boston and Florida several times and these were the worst crews we have ever experienced.

Why don't these people like their jobs?

PS: Neither train offered Railroad French Toast which was a disappointment since we look forward to that traditional item on our train trips.
 
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Please call Customer Relations (1-800-USA-RAIL, when "Julie" answers ask for Agent/you will be connected to a Regular Agent and then ask for Customer Relations!) Unfortunately it sounds like y'all got a couple of the retired on the job diner crews! No excuse for that! (Especially if they were Florida based crews!)

Your nonalcoholic drinks are included with all meals in the diner but due to changes in the menus and the current "cuts" going on by the bean counters @ 60 Mass there are lots of the desired items gone from the menus!

You should receive a sincere apology for the lousy service and a voucher good for future travel on Amtrak!

And hopefully these easy rider OBS will be re-trained or de-trained as it sounds like they shouldn't have these customer service jobs!
 
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cocojacoby said:
Also, even though people were waiting to sit down, two tables were always covered in supplies and crap eliminating their use. This has been common on our Amtrak trips. Is there no place to store things?
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This is a common practice on Amtrak. According to the rule book each dining car should have one "Mise en Place" (supply table). There are places to store things... but not on the upper level. But Amtrak says they should be setup to be "visually appealing." I've rarely seen a crew pull that off.

cocojacoby said:
They told us not to order the Kung Pao chicken because it wasn't very good. Why even have it on the menu then?
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When they first put the Kung Pao chicken on the menu (6 months ago!) the LSA warned us not to get it because he had already heard complaints about it. The better question is... why is Amtrak using the same menus after 6 months?

As to your other problems... I agree with Jim. Call 1-800-USA-RAIL, ask for customer relations and tell them what happened. These crews need to retrained and you deserve a apology and a voucher for putting up with this lousy service.
 
Since that one train's bi-level diner was operated by Fred Harvey/Santa Fe, I'm willing to bet a good steak dinner that it was run to a standard so far above Amtrak's as to be unrecognizable from here....
 
Not true. There were several gallery-Diners operating out of Chicago. Amtrak ran them for a few years on the Anne Rutledge IIRC.
 
I am referencing Amtrak's Service Standards Manual for Train Service and On-Board Service Employees, Manual No. 8, Operations - Service Delivery, Effective 12:01 am, April 30, 2014; Chapter 6, Crew Functions & Responsibilities, page 6-49. This section is in the part that delineates the duties of the Lead Service Attendant - Diner [L.S.A.D.]. Part 3, "LSA-Diner --- Pre-Departure Responsibilities --- On Train", Provision "h": "Mise en Place --- Reserve one table for Mise en Place (supply table) and ensure that it is properly set up and visually appealing."

In most cases, this table is also the only table available where crew members can eat. In many cases, the supplies provided and used by the dining car staff cannot be stored conveniently, so the Mise en Place table becomes the repository for anything that is likely to be needed during the dinner service, which can't be conveniently stored elsewhere. Storage space in a dining car is always at a premium, and many times supplies are purchased without regard for the actual space available. I do not know how these problems were addressed in pre-Amtrak days because I wasn't working for the Company at that time. I do not recall seeing a Mise en Place table on the trains I rode back then, so I tend to believe the operating railroads paid more attention to these storage issues than Amtrak does. The idea that the Mise en Place table should be "visually appealing" is a very nice goal. However, most dining car employees will agree that it is a very elusive goal, and that part of the rule may have been written by someone who has never actually worked in a dining car in service.
 
I've seen this enough to figure its standard operating procedure. It's really not a problem if the crew is at tentative and doing their jobs. When employees congregate there to socialize with those who are eating to the extent that passengers needs are secondary, then the wallet stays in the pocket ann drip goes to somebody who is laying attention.
 
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