I have a relative who has been an attendant for many years. He said that when the train is super late and they run low on food, Amtrak arranges for a food pickup along the way. However, the additional food is never enough for all the passengers.
I was coming back from Texas 1st class on a very late train and only the 1st class passengers were served that extra meal in the dining car. I don't know how coach passengers did; whether or not the lounge car ran out of food.
Have any of you had an experience with the food/late train situation?
I've had at least two such experiences, the most recent being this past March on the east bound Capitol Limited. It's a long story, but the short version is that NS derailed a freight train in front of us just prior to Pittsburgh and reportedly broke the rail. Freights were backed up behind us as well, meaning we couldn't reverse and switch to another track. At the same time, an elderly person on the train had a heart attack and had to be transported to a hospital. The fact that the ambulance couldn't find the access road complicated matters, too (the scanner was better entertainment than TV that night). So we were stuck all night for about 8 hours.
Suffice it to say, the dining car ran out of food after lunch the next day since the westbound Cap doesn't normally serve a lunch before Chicago. For lunch, we had beef tips in a stew (this is a "last meal available" staple on all Amtrak trains), which was free to sleeper pax first, and was then offered to coach pax at no charge.
Since our arrival time in Chicago wasn't expected until about 10 PM that night, our Customer Service agent on board arranged for Kentucky Fried Chicken meals to be delivered somewhere in Indiana, if I remember correctly. Each sleeper passenger basically got a breast, a drumstick, cole slaw, a biscuit, a soda, and a bag of chips. That was fine for me, but it was way, way too greasy for my wife, who still to this day hates Amtrak for selecting KFC. She has a point, in that we both wondered why Amtrak couldn't have just called up a Subway and ordered a number of party subs, one of which could be vegetarian. KFC, which was perfectly fine for some, can be a little embarrassing if that's Amtrak's way of showing that they're doing the best they can.
-Rafi