Lake Shore Limited going east---dining

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steve

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Hi, has anyone been on the Lake Shore Limited going east recently? I'm considering a coach trip from Cleveland to Boston, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. and wondered how the food and atmosphere is in the dining car...traditional tablecloth, china and flatware? Good bill of fare? thanks for any comments.
 
Steve,

I was recently on the westbound LSL from New York to Chicago. There was a remodeled dining car on the train, with traditional tablecloths, good china, and stainless flatware. The service was excellent. Best of all, the food was top-notch, especially the talapia that I had for dinner. My guess is that the eastbound service is comparable.
 
griffit02 - the LSL had real china and glassware? Also... I'm amazed that you were served a good talapia... every time I've ordered it on Amtrak it has been consistently bad. (I gave it at least 2, if not 3 tries.) Glad to hear someone can make it taste good!
 
Breakfast and lunch will be available in the dining car. The food usually rates a pretty good. From Albany to Boston there will just be the lounge car. Sleeper passengers are entitled to a meal - not sure if you will get one if you pay for it. I might have a substantial lunch and then have a late dinner in Boston.
 
TVRM610 said:
griffit02 - the LSL had real china and glassware? Also... I'm amazed that you were served a good talapia... every time I've ordered it on Amtrak it has been consistently bad. (I gave it at least 2, if not 3 tries.) Glad to hear someone can make it taste good!
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Actually, the china was something like Corningware. Not English china, but not paper plates either. Glassware and flatware were not deluxe, but certainly not plastic like on the airlines. Yes, the talapia was quite good. I also had it on the Crescent on the way to New York. Equally good.
 
greatcats said:
Breakfast and lunch will be available in the dining car. The food usually rates a pretty good. From Albany to Boston there will just be the lounge car. Sleeper passengers are entitled to a meal - not sure if you will get one if you pay for it. I might have a substantial lunch and then have a late dinner in Boston.
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This. Just I don't think they have enough meals for Coach Passengers. IIRC looking at the menu on 449/448 there isn't prices on that Menu. So from ALB to BOS your stuck with Amfood.
 
Wasn't there a push once upon a time to get coach patrons to eat in the Dining car to limit their losses? I hate to be the one asking this, but if the diner is really at capacity shouldn't they be breaking even? Even just on paper since sleeper food service is "already paid for".

Some countries treat food on trains like an amenity and don't seem too broken up about losing money on it, but I don't get how if you're stuck on an LD train and it's either eat out of your own cooler or buy Amfood that Amtrak can't seem to get it right. Didn't Pullman make money back in the day? (Of course their pay was bad.)

I understand that short distance trains will inevitably lose money on food but it's often a "loss leader" to boost ridership. Commuter and state-supported routes often keep them because the public demands it. VRE even had a cafe car until they had more riders than they knew what to do with and at that point they got rid of it and put in more seats.
 
Bus Nut said:
Wasn't there a push once upon a time to get coach patrons to eat in the Dining car to limit their losses? I hate to be the one asking this, but if the diner is really at capacity shouldn't they be breaking even? Even just on paper since sleeper food service is "already paid for".
Some countries treat food on trains like an amenity and don't seem too broken up about losing money on it, but I don't get how if you're stuck on an LD train and it's either eat out of your own cooler or buy Amfood that Amtrak can't seem to get it right. Didn't Pullman make money back in the day? (Of course their pay was bad.)

I understand that short distance trains will inevitably lose money on food but it's often a "loss leader" to boost ridership. Commuter and state-supported routes often keep them because the public demands it. VRE even had a cafe car until they had more riders than they knew what to do with and at that point they got rid of it and put in more seats.
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No, the pre-Amtrak operations largely lost money on their dining cars too. It was considered a necessary evil, rather than parking the train for an hour or two for everyone to run into the Harvey House to eat.

And now with the SDS staffing cuts, it's impossible to really encourage coach pax to come to the dining car. Often they're largely shut out on a train where the sleepers are full, as the dining car staff simply cannot accommodate them. For example, I was just on the Silver Meteor & the Star and both were crewed with 1 cook, 1 LSA, and 1 SA. There is no way that 3 people could possibly handle things if they filled up every booth all at once. So they only seat a few tables at once, which dramatically reduces how many people can even hope to get into the dining car. With the sleepers being largely full, for dinner I don't think many coach pax got in at all.

For breakfast maybe more coach pax got in, assuming that they tried.
 
I was on the east bound LSL on Tuesday/Wednesday. The dining room had the same type plates that they use on the other LD trains, not china, but not paper. On the trip from Cleveland, you would get breakfast and lunch (shortened time) in the diner and then sleepers are given two tables in the cafe car with boxed meals from a limited menu. Coach travelers are only able to get cafe car food, no sit down food after Albany.
 
I took the Lake Shore Limited in both directions (Boston-Chicago and Chicago-New York) last month and ate in the dining car for each meal. Breakfast and dinner were excellent, though served on plastic plates. Lunch was mediocre at best. Service was terrible on the westbound train, dinner took close to two hours and two of us were finished with out meal before the third person in my group even got any food. Paired with the rudest Amtrak employee I've ever encountered. Not the best first-time experience in the dining car for me.
 
Thanks folks! About the service, yes it is indeed hit-or-miss----I have seen service on Amtrak that would have gotten the employee fired on the spot in the days of the private railroads....and it would have gotten me fired from McDonald's when I worked there in college and law school....the traveler on Amtrak is far too often made to feel like he is an inconvenience, a bothersome person to be tolerated for as short a time as possible. Of course there are exceptions. But in a business that should be dependent on its customers, a culture should be demanded that patrons are to be treated with courtesy and respect. That is probably the one bad thing about the gov't subsidy of Amtrak---some of the employees seem to believe that they are government employees and can therefore treat the public with indifference or contempt. What I have learned is to go on the trip for my enjoyment and for the scenery and the sheer fun of riding the train. I do not let the Amtrak staff detract from that one bit. If they are rude or indifferent, who cares....and their tip reflects their service.
 
On my trips the past few years on Amtrak I feel that good service has been the rule and poor service in the minority. I did make a complaint recently, but overall Amtrak has many excellent employees.
 
The most annoying thing about the Lake Shore Limited is the lack of eastbound dinner service. Run into the Albany station to get food!

Hopefully this will become less annoying if the schedule change proposed in the PIP (moving the train to leave 4 hours earlier) is ever made. I have no idea why that schedule change hasn't happened yet, but I sure hope it does happen sooner or leater.
 
I would love the east bound to be earlier. Sitting around waiting for nothing less than 5 hours is impossible in CHI, most of the time I have a good 6 hour wait. I am disabled so walking around Chicago is not an option for me. The only dinner service that is given on the Boston leg of the trip is a sitdown version in the cafe car, they have a limited menu that includes at least a salad that I know of.
 
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