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The flex meals certainly aren't gourmet dining though in my experience when prepared properly and served in a dedicated diner (and not the disgraceful half cafe situation they were doing on the Crescent) it's nowhere near as bad as reading the internet would have you believe - my opinion of...

Actually in my experience the sleeping car attendants get up to handle the overnight stops. They plan their night's sleep based on the stops they have to get up for - if there's a bunch they may split them with another car attendant so that they can all get some amount of sleep but I'm not 100%...

This is indeed the long term plan and is under consideration as part of the Corridor ID program - MassDOT won a selection for this.

And we need serious politicians who actually want to govern and not just grand stand to get a cable news job or podcast going. And investors who want to spur innovation while earning a fair return and not just pump and dump. But sadly in the world we live in we get what we get and have to live...

Actually Amtrak did not make a piecemeal funding request. They made a base request and a higher level request for service improvement and modernization for their annual appropriation. They then listed examples of items that they could move on, or move on a faster schedule with improved funding...

The Midwest states that are part of the Midwest equipment pool will not get Airos. If Minnesota does not buy into the Midwest pool then eventually the Borealis might see Airo.

Indications are that Sightseer will be returning sometime in FY25. The FY25 request also mentioned they are wanting to restore Traditional dining to the eagle though they implied that increased funding would allow them to get it done faster - so what that means on timing who knows.

Let me correct my comments to clarify it was the Viewliner II diners I was specifically referring to. I believe the "Starvation" experiment began while they were still running Heritage dining cars. The Star never had a VIEWLINER dining car until the pandemic. The primary point is that this is...

The Diners were never on the Star before COVID - it was doing the Amfleet 2 lounge deal - they basically quietly flip flopped the Crescent and Star during COVID. And it only came to the Lake Shore with the introduction of flex (known as "Fresh cotemporary" at the time.) They have never been...

Nice to see the diner back on the Crescent. This is now the largest amount of VL2 diners ever in circulation since the cars were delivered.

I think they are back to doing more traditional meal seatings on the Lake Shore and Crescent - so it may depend on the crew.

https://www.al.com/news/2024/05/alabama-gov-kay-ivey-talks-with-mobile-about-possible-commitment-for-amtrak.html? A glimmer of hope that maybe Ivey may budge?

And the reason for the city having to pay the operating subsidy is because Governor Ivey is diametrically opposed to the service and will not provide any funding so the city was the work around that the Southern Rail Commission came up with. A change at the state level could change things up and...

We might be coming up on the annual CSX work blitz on the B&A soon. That usually results in weekday bussing of 448-449

Based on most of the talk related to the Hartford Line they will likely be moving away from the 2 car trains over time and replacing those with more through trains that will use the standard Airo dual mode trainsets. One thing that is hinted at with that is that Springfield, not New Haven, is...

Note that not all of the Viewliner 1s have had the names installed on them. Croton River is one I've stayed in a number of times.

Everything with any management these days, for better or for worse, is weighing metrics and numbers and reports on computer screens. I'm sure with flex vs. traditional decision making it's comparing cost/operating income affect vs. customer satisfaction index affect and trying to improve the...

The flexible meals are not cheap. In fact they have a higher food cost per passenger per meal than traditional dining. But the idea is the labor savings makes up for it. This was one thing that led to the restoration of traditional dining on the Silvers. Amtrak admitted that there is a point...

Aramark doesn’t sell food in the same manner as Sysco - they really are not in the same business. Aramark is an outsourcing company not a food company. They may sell some pre prepared meal products to their customers but they’re very different from Sysco. Sysco is a provider of raw food stuffs...

Whether flex or the cafe car is "worse" is fairly subjective and highly dependent on one's individual tastes or food choices. In general I'm going to go for a full meal for dinner over a microwave gas station burger or hot dog. But if one cannot eat or does not have an interest in any of the...