Single Level Train Diners to be Replaced

[Amtrak Watcher]

Especially after I saw the north-bound Texas Eagle this past Friday (30 September) made up of single level cars with a superliner sleeper on the rear, I can’t get my mind around how the diner would disappear on the long-distance superliners. Would you modify the diner or the observation car? And, how do they get the suplerliner sleeper on the back of a string of single-level cars without a transition car? Are the sleeper passengers stranded in their sleeper car? But if you get rid of the diner crews, you may be able to free up the transition sleepers for more paying passengers. What's the point of replacing only the single-level diners? Wouldn't two kinds of meal service (single-level and superliner) only confuse things and make the process more expensive?

 

[Bill Needles]

Perhaps the single level Texas Eagle you saw on Friday was a result of the crash they had a few days earlier. I hope it is temporary as I am traveling the Texas Eagle next Saturday from Austin to Chicago and will be pretty pissed if it is single level with no Diner as I am traveling First Class...Bill

 

[Amtrak OBS Gone Freight]

Hi everybody!
Saw this thread and had to reply!

No changes have been announced for Silver Service.  We are still running the diners and lounges and with the holidays approaching, I don't see this happening. No way a dinette could handle a sold out train.

The biggest problem I see with a dinette on a LDT is refrigerated food storage! Additional boxes will have to be installed or time allotted for the car to be replenished enroute. The car will also need a bigger service area for multiple microwave and convection ovens. It will also need a 2-3 man crew behind the counter to feed a trainload within a reasonable period.

What I am curious about is runnng only two trains during the holidays. Will they run with 4 V/L's and 6 coaches to make up for the Palmetto? :blink:

Curious to hear comments!

MJ B)

Joe, the "Diner Light" prototype is expected to roll out sometime in December according the the article in our "Amtrak Ink" propaganda newspaper :lol: from Sept issue. The rumors I have heard (as told to me in my last crew briefing) have it making its debut for testing on train #92/#97 sometime during the holidays. The other cars are not supposed to be ready till somewhere around May to July FY06. So the holidays this year I don't really see as an issue. I am sure they wouldn't take dining cars off during the holidays this year unless there some big problems regarding our funding for FY06. The budget commitees have made their recomendations as well as the House and Senate proposals are in, but no vote yet on the actual legislation regarding our funding. Congress did on Sept 30th or Oct 1st (one of those two days) did pass a "continuing resolution" keeping Amtrak with farther funding for about two additional months worth while the actual legislation is worked out.

Back to the new "Diner Light" cars. According to the article, it states most of the retrofitting is within the service area of the car itself. It is not very clear regarding the refrigeration (which I agree with you on on how they plan to do this... ), but it does state that they are upgrading the existing units within the galley. How? I really have no idea. On a serious note, it suprises me a little that it seems nothing has been mentioned to you guys. I have hounded them over at the crewbase for a little information regarding this for quite some time now (especially after reading this article), and they finally came clean with what was mentioned in the article so to say. It seems information is hard to get for those of us in MIA, but I try to anyway. I really feel there is gonna be big changes this FY06. Some of which is not necessarily bad either. But on another note, when have we not had to have dealt with changes like these within this company we're employed by? I don't know about what you think, but it seems like everything changes constantly at Amtrak in my opinion. Everything is based on the "trial and error" way of business at Amtrak if you ask me. According to some of the old timers I have spoke with, this has been tried before. We'll see what happens, bro. Stay safe. OBS...

 

[Miami Joe]

Sorry for the slow response!

After working for a mass transit system, Amtrak needs "new blood" with no cronyism or nepotism! :angry:

As much as I applaude Gunn's efforts, he's still being lied to! His advisers "paint a rosy picture" on the daily conference calls, but the trains and passengers are getting screwed! There are too many "old timers" in the system that continue to run their facilities with total disregard to Gunn's agenda!

Amtrak is suffering the same fate as Delta, AA, etc. The new airlines are "lean and mean" while Amtrak's management is stuck with, " It's worked for a 100 yrs, and we know what we are doing!"

Amtrak has hired people from other systems with great ideas and knowledge, but after a year or two, they end up with low self esteem and a bad attitude! :angry:

MJ B)

 

[Guest_Timetableflagman]

Spreading out the dining car personnel to staff a dinette on each of two daily trains per each route, having a steward and a waiter on each, with the current chefs and cooks working stationary to produce the packageable meals, should save all dining car jobs as well as provide more capacity for otherwise overbooked daily trains and offer better choices of schedules up and down each line for passengers-- provided that the trains are scheduled some six hours apart per direction, stopping at major stations at commuting times.

The dining car is the jewel and gem of a passenger train-- the smell of coffee brewing, the linen tablecloths, the jingling of "silver" and glasswear, the flower vases in the windows on each table-- all these are the ambience of the dining car and all are equally possible on a dinette, especially one itself made possible by trains operating at a lower cost than with doubly staffed, lower capacity diners. Even in the event of needing two dinettes per certain high capacity trains, while equalling the overall staffing requirements of a single diner, the passenger capacity of both could be quadruple that of the single dining car. Two sections of the same train serve the same purpose.

Something like slumbercoaches may be the answer for lower capacity sleeping cars. These, along with handbaggage only rather than checked baggage and the necesary car to carry it, can reduce the cost of each train while providing basic service for cross-country or regional passengers. The service should be geared mainly for local and regional commuters with a rudimentary cross-country capability. Those with real cross-country rail travel desires will be adequately served while the more majority demand for regional and local rail passenger service will be accommodated.