Six days, one meal?
Shocking to many, they do have this thing called a cafe/lounge car.
I would never claim that I had good food, from the café/lounge car. Tolerable, yes. Better than nothing, yes. But good, no.
Perhaps to maximize the amount of passengers they are able to serve given that they have an hour and 15 minutes less to do so? Or would you rather serve a full dining menu and risk running late because there is more of a selection to cook, which slows down service time, which leads to more time spent in the diner, etc.?
Risk running late for what? The hard limit that is set for cutting everything off at 9:30PM?? If I was a sleeping car passenger who was getting off in the morning, YES I'd rather see full service and risk running late. (Whatever that means)
Another words they "MAY" choose to do it if they want and nothing is stopping them from offering the full menu.
My bad, I thought you may be fasting
I'm thinking he's saying they'd serve fewer pax because pax being served would be spending longer times in the diner. As for the 9:30 cut-off, don't forget they have a lot to do after the last pax leave the diner and only get ?4? hours off (for sleep) before they have to get up to prepare for breakfast.
Thank you Betty, that's pretty much exactly what I meant. And I'm not sure exactly much sleep they are able to get, but in between dinner and breakfast is where they should be able to get the most. From dinner end to breakfast start would be eight hours given the fact they cross a time zone overnight. Figure an hour to clean up and get everything locked up after dinner, and figure an hour for getting ready and prepped in the morning (I honestly don't know, as we don't work diners in Boston), and you're now talking about having six hours off, so maybe what, four and a half hours of sleep? Five hours at absolute best, if you're able to fall right asleep and jump right up and get in the shower in the morning? Keep in mind...it is basically like this for six days for these folks. So asking them to keep serving past their close time is..not very nice of someone to do.
Today's "full dining menu" is already nearing the size and selection of express menus from previous years. How much more limited do they need it to get before they're satisfied they can handle it? For minimal service standards and maximum patronage nothing can beat a return of the automat car. Where I work we have vending machines with precooked frozen junk food and a bank of microwaves. Seems like the perfect fit for Amtrak's ever decreasing standards. Bon appetit.
I'm only speculating what their rationale is, since like I had mentioned I've never worked a dining car. And although I haven't been around long enough to actually experience the diners in their full glory, I've got to admit that it sounds like it's quite a shame what they've been reduced to. It'd be nice to see them return to carrying better menus (ViaRail certainly does on the Canadian), but we all know that isn't going to happen, unfortunately.
True this! Nuff said!
2 thumbs up to crescent-zephyr! After my last trip on the SWC, I've kind of lost all sympathy for the dining car crew. Extra sleep is obviously not helping with their lazyness and scowl. And with all the moaning that coach passengers can't afford the dining car and they are not eating, I highly doubt them not getting into eat is going to be a problem. The two choices on the express menu are chicken or pasta, and if someone can't eat both????
