Silver Star has new Café menu and no diner

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The problem is labor cost in a railroad restaurant car apparently. No one is willing to work under the conditions prevailing a railroad restaurant car operating on a train over two or three days for the pay grades that prevail in on ground restaurants. apparently.
Wasn't there a plan to employ Subway (or a similar chain) as part of a test run on at least one Amtrak route until the union balked at the idea? I'm not anti-union myself, but if this is the very best quality they can manage then I would hope they would be willing to get out of the way and give someone else a try.
There was... on a corridor run. (I think Empire for some reason?). If you want to look at that example look at the Downeaster, where the state (?) supplies the staff for the cafe car. Pretty good menu, lots of local selections. It doesn't handle the same volume as some Amtrak trains but it appears to work pretty well. The Sandwich and local candy I had on board for lunch was WAY better than the traditional Cafe offerings.

The thing is.. that's corridor trains. The trains are stocked and staffed out of one location. And at the end of the day, the employees go home, just like a "normal" job.

Long distance dining cars? Certainly some unique challenges. As I mentioned... Iowa Pacific has done a pretty good job. The Hoosier State, while still a corridor type train, has deadhead crew moves, so the overnighting is part of the job.
 
The need for overnight arises in case of Hoosier State because it is not daily. If it were daily there would be no need for overnight. Still,they don;t have to serve and sleep on the train overnight, like they would have to if they were the OBS on a true LD train.
 
The need for overnight arises in case of Hoosier State because it is not daily. If it were daily there would be no need for overnight. Still,they don;t have to serve and sleep on the train overnight, like they would have to if they were the OBS on a true LD train.
But.. Iowa Pacific has proven that they can handle that as well. (serving and over-night on the train as was the case with Pullman Rail Journeys).
 
Although they have not quite proved that they can do it profitably at a price point that would work for Amtrak passengers yet. So the jury is still out.
Do you think anyone can? Profit is just about impossible in this game... I'm suggesting that Iowa Pacific can provide it for less of a loss than Amtrak, and that's just because they are non-union really. Yes the quality would be better as well... and perhaps over time a few more coach passengers would pay to eat in the diner if they heard the food and service was better.

Better service could also improve upsells (more alcohol and more dessert sales).

But I still think as a whole, factoring in all costs, it's gonna lose money. The comissary staffing, hotels, transportation to and from hotels, loading and unloading stock, delivery fees of stock, actual maintenance of the dining car ( a "non-revenue" car) etc.
 
On the labor cost front I suspect you are possibly correct. As for the rest I have really no way of knowing since neither IP nor Amtrak really supply enough details in an open fashion to figure it out.

At the end of the day the issue will still be how much one is willing to spend on F&B and I have no clue what the right number should be either. The answers to this conundrum are not that easy to come by.
 
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